SAN FRANCISCO -- Two teams that would be National League first-round playoff opponents square off Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series that will feature neither teams staff ace.The Washington Nationals and San Francisco Giants will take identical 59-42 records onto the field for the first of seven games they will play coast to coast over the next 11 days.The Nationals, who lead the NL East by four games over the Miami Marlins, rode ace Stephen Strasburgs strong seven-inning outing to a 4-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday before boarding a flight to San Francisco.The Giants, meanwhile, retained a 2 1/2-game lead in the NL West despite a 2-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, a game in which ace Madison Bumgarner lost despite allowing only two runs (one earned) in eight innings.By virtue of both having pitched Wednesday, neither Strasburg nor Bumgarner is scheduled to start again until next week.Interestingly, both are tentatively slated to pitch a week from Sunday, when the Giants and Nationals wrap up a three-game series in Washington.Thursdays first 2016 meeting of the division leaders will pit Giants center Denard Span against his former team for the first time since he left as a free agent over the winter.Washington might finally have found an adequate replacement atop the batting order in Trea Turner, the offensive star the Wednesday win with three hits and three RBI.He is batting .297 in eight games as the Nationals leadoff hitter after the earlier Span replacements struggled at a .214 clip.Hes fun to watch, Strasburg said of Turner after Wednesdays game. I was just excited the other day to finally watch him hit a triple. I was waiting for that for such a long time, just to see him run.The Nationals will be catching Span in his hottest stretch of the season. The Giants leadoff man has recorded two more hits in nine of his past 16 games, raising his average to .256.The Nationals will begin the San Francisco portion of the seven-game sequence by sending right-hander Tanner Roark to the mound.Roark has been roughed up on a regular basis over his past nine starts, allowing four or more runs on four different occasions, including in his last outing against the San Diego Padres.Roark gave up a pair of home runs among four hits in five innings against the Padres, allowing all San Diegos scoring in 5-3 Washington loss last Friday.Home runs were plentiful in the Giants just-completed series with the Cincinnati Reds, during which San Francisco pitchers allowed eight long balls in three games.That was the most home runs allowed by the Giants in a three-game series in AT&T Park history.The homers led directly to a pair of Reds wins, which dropped San Franciscos record since the All-Star break to 2-9.Weve been through this plenty of times, and we know what its about, Bumgarner said of the Giants struggles of late. Things will turn around for us.Right-hander Johnny Cueto (13-2) gets the call for the Giants on Thursday. In his most recent outing, he allowed one run, which was unearned, in six innings Saturday during a no-decision against the Yankees at New York. San Francisco won 2-1 in 12 innings.Outside of the pitching matchups, second base will be a position of focus in the weekend series.Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy smacked his 20th home run of the season in the series finale against Cleveland. He will take the field Thursday with the NLs best batting average (.354).The Giants, meanwhile, have gone 23 games without their star second baseman, Joe Panik, who is recovering from a concussion. San Francisco has gone just 10-13 during that stretch.Panik began a rehab stint at Triple-A Sacramento earlier this week, and Giants manager Bruce Bochy hopes to have his 2015 All-Star, a .300 hitter in each of the previous two seasons, back in the lineup by the weekend. Cheap Yankees Jerseys . 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On Tuesday, Ottawa placed forward Cory Conacher and defenceman Joe Corvo on waivers as trade rumours swirl around the Senators. On the same day as WWEs summer-themed fighting event, SummerSlam, this past Sunday was the conclusion of Summer Jam X, with a grappler ending the latter tournament as the victor.Du NuckleDu Dang used a combination of Nash and Rainbow Mika to complete a comeback and claim victory, proving that he belongs in the upper tier of North American threats in Street Fighter V. But the level of parity that exists among the North American contingent makes predicting results in the top eight almost impossible. There were plenty of candidates for tournament favorite and it may just stay that way for the rest of the Capcom Pro Tour.Its hard not to be impressed by the consistent performances of Echo Fox Julio Fuentes, Team Naventics Peter Flash Susini, Evil Geniuses Ricki Ortiz, EVB Gamings Chris Tatarian, and Circa eSports Long LPN Nguyen.The grand finalsTeam Liquids NuckleDu needed to switch his play and character choice to take down his opponent, Evil Geniuses Ricki Ortiz. Instead of his reliable Nash, he opted to go for a snowball approach in Rainbow Mika and it paid off. The pace was quick and both Ortiz and NuckleDu had little time to focus on past blunders.NuckleDus risk witth Rainbow Mika was an instant success as he took round after round and forced a finals reset.dddddddddddd When the reset began, NuckleDu never relented his pressure. His characters comeback potential erased all fear from deficits and put the pressure on Ortiz instead. Despite stellar play from Ortizs Chun-Li, it was NuckleDu who was the aggressor for the majority of the set; hed finish the tournament with a perfect victory.Another victory for character varietyRainbow Mika took down the grand finals, but the top eight was a combination of many characters. From grapplers like Birdie, Rainbow Mika, and Alex to control characters like Chun-Li, Nash, and Vega, it was a varied field. There were 10 characters represented on the final day alone; and although there are many opinions about which characters rise above others, its evident that Street Fighters competitive lifespan will not falter due to a lack of character choice. Itll be exciting to see if more newer characters like Balrog or Ibuki will make an appearance when the stakes are higher. ' ' '