 but for whatever reason I was seeing the ball a little better today,'' Bumgarner said. ''With the RBI situations I've had the last few games, I wanted to shorten up and just try to make contact.'' The highly anticipated matchup between pitchers with two of the five lowest ERAs in the majors wound up being a slugfest. San Francisco and New York combined for 17 runs and 30 hits.'' I didn't see that kind of game coming,'' Bochy said. ''You had two good ones out there and they just weren't on top of their game.'' New York had taken a 4-0 lead in the fourth on Justin Ruggiano's second career grand slam in his first game back off the disabled list. San Francisco bounced back with three runs in the bottom of the inning before Bumgarner's home run. The home run helped overcome a shaky outing by San Francisco's four-time All-Star. Bumgarner (12-7) allowed four runs over five innings and struck out six.'' It was kind of rough the whole game,'' Bumgarner said. ''Location wasn't that good. Even when we were throwing strikes in the zone, the strikes weren't located how I'd want to.'' DeGrom (7-6) had allowed only two earned runs over his previous 27 2-3 innings before giving up career-highs in runs (8) and hits (13). He struck out five and walked one in losing to the Giants for the first time in four starts.'' It seemed like everything I threw went right down the middle,'' deGrom said. ''Tonight's on me. I was terrible.'' Eduardo Nunez had four hits and three RBIs for San Francisco, Brandon Crawford and Denard Spann added three hits apiece while Joe Panik drove in two runs. Six Giants pitchers combined to retire the final 12 batters. Santiago Casilla worked the ninth for his 28th save. San Francisco ended a four-game losing streak and pulled within one-half game of the first-place Dodgers in the NL West. Los Angeles lost to Philadelphia earlier Thursday. Travis d'Arnaud and T. J. Rivera had two hits apiece for the Mets. New York scored three times in the sixth to pull to 8-7 then loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh before Derek Law got Ty Kelly to ground out. Buster Posey hit a two-run double in the eighth to give the Giants breathing room. MILESTONE MOMENTIt was Bochy's 1,769th career win, tying him with long-time Pirates and Tigers manager Jim Leyland for 15th on the all-time list. ''I'm humbled to even reach this milestone with somebody who's done so much for the game and was one of the best managers ever in the game,'' Bochy said. RARE AIRBumgarner is the second pitcher in the modern era to allow a grand slam then hit a go-ahead home run in the same inning, according to EliasSports. Hal Jeffcoat did it with the 1957 Cincinnati Reds. TRAINER'S ROOMMets: SS Asdrubal Cabrera (strained left patella tendon) and OF Yoenis Cespedes (strained right quad) are expected to join the team Friday. ... 2B Neil Walker (lower back) missed his third straight game. ... RHP Gabriel Ynoa was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. Giants: RHP Matt Cain was placed on the 15-day DL with a lower back strain. RHP Cory Gearrin was activated off the DL. UP NEXTMets: RHP Seth Lugo (0-1) will make his first start of the season Friday in place of Steven Matz. Matz was scratched late Thursday with shoulder soreness.. Giants: RHP Johnny Cueto (13-3) pitches for San Francisco looking to end a six-game winless stretch.
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Time: 10:15 P.M. EST Venue: AT&T Park
SAN FRANCISCO -- Two teams tail-spinning into dangerous territory in the National League playoff picture look to turn things around while adding to the other's misery when the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants open a four-game series Thursday night. The pitching matchup in the opener has an October feel to it: Jacob deGrom vs. Madison Bumgarner. But truth be told, neither New York nor San Francisco figures to be playing much fall baseball the way their summers have been going. The Mets (60-60) arrive in San Francisco having lost two of three at Arizona to open a 10-game trip. And now comes the tough part: four at San Francisco (66-54) and three at St. Louis (64-56), two of the four teams the Mets are chasing in the wild-card race. The race has gone more backward than forward for both the Mets and the Giants in recent weeks. Having lost seven of 10 against the Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres -- the bottom two teams in the NL West -- the Mets are just 13-18 since the All-Star break, the fourth-worst record in the NL. They are hoping deGrom (7-5, 2.30 ERA) can help get things headed back in the right direction. The right-hander has been terrific in his past nine starts. If you throw out his only loss in that stretch -- when he was roughed up for five runs in 3 2/3 innings at Miami on July 23 -- he has allowed just five runs in 56 2/3 innings, an 0.79 ERA. However, he has only four wins to show for those games, an indication of just how bad the Mets have been of late. They are planning to have shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera (Thursday) and Yoenis Cespedes (Friday) back for the San Francisco series, which might help. Cabrera has been sidelined since Aug. 1 with a strained left patellar tendon, while Cespedes has placed out since Aug. 4 due to a strained right quadriceps. San Francisco, meanwhile, fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 on Wednesday, capping a three-game series sweep. The Giants have lost five of six on their current 10-game homestand. They have been even worse than the Mets since the All-Star break, going 9-21, the worst record in baseball. Along the way, the Giants have dropped out of first place in the NL West after holding the top spot for 93 consecutive days. They will begin play Thursday trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by 1 1/2 games in the division." We're taking some blows right now," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said after the Wednesday loss. "But it's a tough club. It's a resilient club. They came out and did some good things (Wednesday). We're creating some good chances and opportunities." The Giants will begin the series with their ace on the mound. Bumgarner (11-7, 2.11 ERA) has never lost to the Mets in his career, having gone 4-0 with a 1.03 ERA in five starts. In fact, Bumgarner hasn't even allowed a run to the Mets since Sept. 13, 2013. He is the only pitcher with at least two starts against the Mets not to have given up a run against them over the past three seasons. Interestingly, both the Mets and Giants already are planning ahead for a big series next week, when New York visits St. Louis and San Francisco goes to Dodger Stadium. Both managers are of the same mindset with a day off Monday. Each indicated Wednesday he is considering skipping his fifth starter (the Mets' Jonathon Niese and Giants' Matt Cain) so that deGrom and Bumgarner can begin that series as well." We'll have to see what happens (Thursday) night," Mets manager Terry Collins said of deGrom's pitch count.
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