SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco Giants will be looking to close more ground on the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers when they open a week-long homestand with a three-game series against the fourth-place San Diego Padres on Monday night.The Giants trimmed two games off what had been a five-game deficit in the West by sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday through Sunday while the Dodgers were losing two of three at Miami.Once again, the week begins with the Giants enjoying the more favorable of the matchups. The Dodgers wrap up a trip with a three-game series in New York against the Yankees, beginning Monday.The Giants (77-65) and Dodgers (80-62) still have six head-to-heads on the schedule, including three next Monday through Wednesday in Los Angeles.The Giants hope to go into that series with Hunter Pence swinging the same hot bat he packed for the flight home from Arizona on Sunday night.Pence had a historically good series in Arizona, highlighted by back-to-back, four-run games Friday and Saturday.He became just the fifth Giant ever to total eight runs in consecutive games, and the first major-leaguer since the New York Mets David Wright in August of 2015 to have consecutive four-run efforts.C.J. Cron of the Los Angeles Angels recorded the 2016 season high of five runs scored on July 2 against the Boston Red Sox.A player has scored four runs in a game 35 other times this season, including three times by the Cubs Kris Bryant and twice over a three-day span by the Blue Jays Josh Donaldson.But Pence is the only player to have achieved the feat on back-to-back days this season.The veteran sandwiched those efforts with a 3-for-5 outing with a double and an RBI in the series finale Thursday at Colorado, and a 1-for-3 outing with a two-run double Sunday to cap the sweep over the Diamondbacks.He will take an 11-for-16 streak (.688) into the San Diego series. Hes owned the Padres this season, going 11-for-23 (.478), with at least one hit in all six of his starts against them.The Giants roll into the homestand in more ways than one.They were able to rest most of their much-maligned bullpen Sunday with starter Matt Moore completing seven innings in a 5-3 win.He did a nice job, assessed Giants manager Bruce Bochy. The seven solid innings allowed us to use the bullpen the way we wanted.Jeff Samardzija will get the ball for the Giants on Monday. Hes gone 3-0 with a 3.91 ERA in four starts against the Padres this season, improving his career mark against them to 6-1 with a 3.29 ERA in eight starts.Hell be facing a Padres offense that San Diego manager Andy Green thought failed to show up for Sundays 3-2 home loss to the Colorado Rockies.The Padres were no-hit by Chad Bettis for three innings and totaled only five hits in the game.That was not our sharpest game offensively, Green observed. Over those first innings, I thought we lacked fight during our at-bats.The Padres will open the series with Paul Clemens on the mound.The right-hander has never faced the Giants among his first 16 career starts. ISPA Air Max 270 SP SOE . -- Former San Diego Chargers safety Paul Oliver was found dead at his Atlanta-area home Tuesday night, and a medical examiner said Wednesday that the ex-player committed suicide. Air Max 270 React Black Grey .Y. - Rob Manfred was promoted Monday to Major League Baseballs chief operating officer, which may make him a candidate to succeed Bud Selig as commissioner. http://www.cheapairmax270react.com/ . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field. Air Max 270 Future Swoosh . -- Brandon Jennings made the most of his first game with the Detroit Pistons on Sunday night. Air Max 270 React Electro Green . R.J. Umberger scored twice to lead the Blue Jackets to a franchise-record for consecutive wins with a 5-3 victory Tuesday night over the Los Angeles Kings. INDIANAPOLIS -- Colts tight end Dwayne Allen can handle the criticism he receives from people about not being able to stay healthy.The facts are clear cut about Allens inability to stay on the field. Hes already missed 21 games in his five-year career and will miss even more now that hes on crutches and wearing a boot because of an ankle injury.What Allen cannot tolerate, though, is receiving hatred and racial comments from people. That was the case when he was shown Sunday on camera, and misreported, according to Allen, on one knee at the end of the national anthem prior to the start of the game against the Houston Texans.Allen, who said hes been doing that at the same point in the anthem since he entered the NFL in 2012, released a video through the Colts website late Tuesday evening and then addressed the matter again Wednesday afternoon.I was not protesting, I was praying, he said. Whether I was protesting or not, it doesnt give the right for others to use those words of hate. If you want to show patriotism, show patriotism, have pride about this great nation, show your love and devotion about this great nation. Dont use words of hate to try to show harm to someone else.If you want to talk about my play, how Im often injured, thats part of the territory. I get it. But to use words of hate to try too break me down because you thought I was protesting something.dddddddddddd You wanted to mask what really is in your heart, the hatred under the false pretense of patriotism. Thats not right. Thats not right to millions of Americans who do show patriotism in the right way.Allen reached the breaking point and knew he had to speak up after receiving countless comments on Twitter because people thought he was taking a knee in the same manner that San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has been?protesting police brutality and racial oppression.I cant allow this to continue to go on and other players who have received this type of abuse without a light being shed on this issue, Allen said. Im not friends with Colin Kaepernick. Hes a part of the brotherhood, the NFL, but I believe his demonstration started so he could shed light on the inequalities that we have between the people of color in this country.Ive wanted to shed the light on that issue and hopefully we as a great nation we can come to a place where we all say enough and we gather together and we say we do have the ability to show what true patriotism is and thats what were going to do instead of sharing hate. ' ' '