Oh cool, more snakes

It seems like the San Francisco Giants just keep playing the Arizona Diamondbacks. Honestly, I’m OK with that. There’s a pretty dramatic record difference between these two teams.

This time it’s just a two-game series and, sadly, we still don’t get to see Madison Bumgarner pitch in front of the Oracle Park crowd, but hey ... maybe he’ll pinch hit?

Series details

Who: San Francisco Giants vs. Arizona Diamondbacks
Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California
When: Tuesday (6:45 p.m.) and Wednesday (6:45 p.m.)
National broadcasts: None

Where they stand

San Francisco Giants

Record: 71-41, 1st in the NL West
Run differential: +131, 2nd in the NL
Postseason standing: 1st seed
Momentum: 2-game winning streak, 7-3 in their last 10 games

Arizona Diamondbacks

Record: 35-78, 5th in the NL West
Run differential: -178, 15th in the NL
Postseason standing: 29.5 games out of the Wild Card, 36.5 games out of the NL West
Momentum: 2-game losing streak, 3-7 in their last 10 games

Season series: Giants lead 12-2

Three Giants to watch

Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images

Brandon Belt: Belt has appeared in four games since missing about a month and a half on the Injured List. In those four games he’s hit 5-13 with 4 home runs, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Yes. Keep that up, please.

Kevin Gausman: Gausman struggled mightily in his first three starts after the All-Star break, allowing 17 hits, 9 walks, and 11 earned runs in just 11.2 innings. But he found his footing again in his last start, against this same DBacks team, as he gave up 5 hits, 0 walks, and just 1 earned run in 6 innings, while recording 8 strikeouts. Between then and now Gausman left the team, welcomed a daughter into his life, and returned to the team. Family is more important than baseball, so congrats to Kevin and his wife Taylor on their new family member first and foremost. But baseball is also cool so a nice performance would be fun.

Alex Wood: Wood has had some great performances this year, and also some stinkers. His last game fell into the latter category ... and was against Arizona. Wood gave up 10 baserunners in just 4 innings against the DBacks last week, while also allowing 4 runs. The Giants overcame that with a dramatic ninth inning, but they won’t want to rely on that this time around.

Three Diamondbacks to watch

Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images

Merrill Kelly: Kelly is having a rather average year, but he shut down the Giants last week, pitching 8 shutout innings while allowing just 3 hits and 2 walks. That said, the Giants only struck out 4 times and had some hard hit outs, and they won when Arizona thankfully took Kelly out for the ninth inning. But it’s still a matchup to watch.

Zac Gallen: Gallen is a darn good pitcher who’s having a pretty rough year, and that was on display last week against the Giants, when he gave up 4 hits, 3 walks, and 3 earned runs in 5.2 innings to raise his ERA to 4.62. That was his third start of the year against the Giants, and easily his best. In July he allowed 8 baserunners and 3 earned runs in just 2 innings, and in a June start it was 4 earned runs in just 2.2 innings. So the Giants seem to have him somewhat figured out this year.

Ketel Marte and Carson Kelly: 40 different players have had a plate appearance for the Diamondbacks this season and, per Baseball Reference, just six of them have hit above league average. One of those six is pitcher Jake Faria, who has three plate appearances. One of them is Andrew Young, who is not on the active roster. One of them is Josh Rojas, who is injured. And one of them is Eduardo Escobar, who has been traded. That leaves just two players: Marte and Kelly.