Saturday's series opener at Oracle Park, 7:05 PM PT first pitch, lines up as a matchup the Cubs should feel good about even with the rotation in shambles. Both probable starters are still TBD on the public boards, which says plenty about where each team's pitching depth sits in mid-June. Chicago drags a 35-34 record into the Bay after a bumpy week in Denver, where they dropped 2 of 3 to the Rockies before salvaging the finale 9-3 behind a Seiya Suzuki grand slam. That win snapped a stretch in which they'd lost 21 of 28, per the Sun-Times, so the offense finally breathing again matters more than the standings would suggest. The story for the Cubs right now is Pete Crow-Armstrong, who's hitting .455 with a 1.409 OPS over his last 5 games and is sitting on a 12-game hitting streak that included 5 home runs. He already authored a walk-off pair of homers against this Giants club last week at Wrigley. San Francisco's pitching staff knows exactly what's coming and still hasn't figured out how to slow it down. The Giants enter at 28-41 and 8 games out of the third NL Wild Card, with the offense finally showing signs of life — Matt Chapman, Willy Adames and Casey Schmitt have all been mashing of late — but the rotation is held together with tape. Tyler Mahle is on the 15-day IL with a hamstring strain, and the bullpen behind him has more 60-day IL designations than healthy high-leverage arms. Adames also sat out Wednesday, so monitor his status. Chicago's injury list is arguably uglier. Matthew Boyd was supposed to return from the IL this weekend but is back to square one with shoulder soreness, Jameson Taillon (hamstring) is out until after the All-Star break, and Justin Steele is gone through July as well. Whoever Craig Counsell hands the ball to Saturday is doing it on a patchwork staff. The plus side: he can also lean on a lineup that just put up 9 on Colorado and has the hottest hitter in the National League at the top of it. It's a soft spot in the schedule for the Cubs and a chance for the Giants to play spoiler at home. With both rotations a question mark and both bullpens beaten up, this one feels like it'll come down to which lineup gets to the soft middle innings first.