UPDATE, 6:2 5 p.m.: This just in! The Giants have scratched Angel Pagan from Tuesday night’s lineup with the laceration on his left middle finger. He was spiked while stealing second base Monday night and had the fingernail “cracked pretty good,” in manager Bruce Bochy’s words.

Pagan had discomfort as he played catch before batting practice. He took BP with some difficulty.

Pagan has a pretty good swing going. He’s hitting .350. He could wreck that swing trying to compensate for the pain in his finger. Justin Maxwell will play right field, with Gregor Blanco moving to center.

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Bochy said he spoke to Casey McGehee on Tuesday, and said McGehee might sit Wednesday as well as Tuesday night.

"We had a good talk," Bochy said. He even admitted he might have needed to take a step back. The guy cares. He's probably putting added pressure on himself. That's where you've got to back off a little bit. One guy is not going to carry us. We need everyone to do what they're suppose to do."

Also, Hunter Pence has turned a corner in his comeback from a broken arm. He is crushing balls in batting practice, on the field and in the cage, as he did Tuesday.

"His BP today got better as it went," Bochy said. "He started on a tee then worked off a machine. They got it cranked up pretty good."

He could begin a minor-league rehab assignment within a week.

Jake Peavy's first bullpen session since going on the DL with back and hip injuries went well, Bochy said.

Matt Cain again played catch at 90 feet and could throw off a mound shortly.

UPDATE, 4:2 0 p.m.: I just spoke to Casey McGehee, who will sit a night after a he was booed by fans at AT&T Park. He struck out with two runners on scoring position and nobody out and booed lightly. The jeers got louder when he grounded into a first-pitch double play with the bases loaded to end the next inning.

"I have no hard feelings toward anybody who got on me last night," McGehee said. "There were times last night, if I were up there, I'd have booed myself. I'm looking forward to the day I get things going and the boos turn around."

McGehee had been having better at-bats before Monday night.

"I felt especially on the weekend I was swinging the bat pretty good," he said. "Last night wasn't my best, obviously. Even if you're hitting .400 you're going to have days like that.

"The trick is to just keep going. I've been down and out, counted out, before. The only way I know how to do it is to keep showing up, preparing, keeping my nose down and keep working."

I asked McGehee if this was harder because he is home (having grown up near Santa Cruz). He said not necessarily, because he wants to play well wherever he is, but added, "It definitely does not make it any easier."

"I guarantee you there wasn't one person in the stands who was more frustrated or disappointed than myself. It's not easy. (Booing) is not something you look forward to. At the same time, I'm frustrated, too."

ORIGINAL POST: As manager Bruce Bochy promised, he is sitting a struggling Casey McGehee to “let him catch his breath” Tuesday night. Matt Duffy will play third base. Justin Maxwell also sits against the righty, with Gregor Blanco starting in right.

Blanco is 4-for-13 against starter Andrew Cashner,

The lineup:

1. Aoki LF

2. Panik 2B

3. Pagan CF

4. Posey C

5. Belt 1B

6. Crawford SS

7. Blanco RF

8. Duffy 3B

9. Vogelsong P

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The Giants are shooting for their fifth straight win and third consecutive shutout, which they last accomplished when they had four in a row in 2012 (including an entire series shutout against the Dodgers).

Ryan Vogelsong gets the ball coming off his four-homer loss at Dodger Stadium. His 9.31 ERA does not shout "shutout baseball," but we'll see. His last start at home was pretty good. He held the Dodgers to two runs over six innings in a 3-2 Giants victory on April 23.

You will see a shaven Vogelsong. He ditched the beard. I did not have a chance to ask him if that was a change-of-luck thing.

With a victory, their eighth in a row at home, the Giants would leapfrog the Padres and move into second place in the National League West and boast a winning record for the first time since they were 3-2.

None of that means anything with one-sixth of the schedule complete, but it does underscore why people who draw conclusions based on a week or two of play in April are running a fool's errand.

I don't know if the Giants have enough to compete for a playoff spot in 2015. They sure could use more stability in the rotation and play better baseball overall. What they do have, unequivocally, is the knowledge that in each of their three World Series title years they had to overcome some bad play at some point in the season, as most teams do.

After Monday night's win, I asked Sergio Romo if that knowledge seeped into the team's thinking as they were losing eight in a row in April.

"I can say yes," Romo said. "The fact that we can rely on experience, it's not like 'been there, done that,' but it's more like, 'OK, I know this feeling before. It's not a complete surprise. We don't have to sit there and panic. It's early in the season as well and anything can happen.'

"As a group we seemed to make some adjustments and turn a corner a little bit right now. Again, it's too early and there's a lot of baseball to play. We've got to keep it going."

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A thought on the Padres. It's not original, but seemed fairly obvious as we watched the end of Monday's game:

New general manager A.J. Preller built a dangerous lineup, but it's too right-handed. That makes them very vulnerable to good right-handed late relievers when they are behind.

Romo relieved Madison Bumgarner with one out in the eighth Monday and struck out Wil Myers and Derek Norris. Santiago Casilla had no trouble with Matt Kemp, Justin Upton (who reached on an error), Yangervis Solarte and Jedd Gyorko.

Had Bumgarner not started, the Padres would have had a lefty first baseman in Yonder Alonso and shortstop in Clint Barmes, but the other left-handed hitters in the San Diego lineup are not middle-order types.

Still, it would be unfair to point this out without noting that San Diego leads the league in runs by a fair margin. They have scored 131, 13 more than second-place L.A. The Giants have scored the second-fewest at 81.

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An interesting tidbit from Stats LLC, via the Giants. They have not scored seven runs in a game yet this year. If they fail to do so again Tuesday night, they will set a San Francisco record for consecutive games with six or fewer runs, at 27.