Giants open critical series with Cubs

Jeff Samardzija, who grew up in Indiana rooting for the White Sox and broke into the majors as a Cub, starts the opener for the Giants.

Span left Tuesday’s game with a stiff neck and missed Wednesday’s game, but he didn’t sound like a man who’ll miss much time based on this Wednesday tweet:

Six players were added to the roster including four left-handed pitchers:

Matt Cain will come off the disabled list Friday.

Funny how rosters expanded on the day the Giants open a series at Wrigley, which has the tiniest dugout and visitors’ clubhouse in the league.

The Giants fell to earth since the break, going 15-27, while the Cubs are streaking at 85-47 - a whopping 15 games ahead of second-place St. Louis in the NL Central.

Giants lineup: CF Span, LF Pagan, C Posey, RF Pence, SS Crawford, 2B Panik, 3B Nunez, 1B Belt, RH Samardzija.