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SAN FRANCISCO — Two teams expecting key pitchers to be ready for their regular duties clash Saturday afternoon when the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants lock horns for the third time in their four-game series.

The clubs have split the first two games Womens Joe Flacco Jersey , with the Cardinals doing pretty much all the hitting in an 11-2 shellacking on Thursday night, before the Giants got the better of a pitchers’ duel in a 3-2 victory on Friday.

Two days after watching Johnny Cueto get rocked in his return from the disabled list, Jeff Samardzija is expected to make his first start for the Giants since May 29.

Samardzija (1-4, 6.56) struggled through pectoral and shoulder soreness in April and May before being shelved.

“I always willed myself through little injuries and pains here and there along the way,” Samardzija told SFGate.com. “I thought with a little break, I’d be fine. It just ended up being an uphill battle the whole time. We feel back to normal.”

He pitched well against the Cardinals last season, allowing a total of one run and seven hits in 15 innings in two starts, striking out 17.

He didn’t get a decision in either game, both of which the Giants won.

Samardzija has faced the Cardinals 23 times in his career, 12 times as a starter, and has a 4-4 record with a 3.68 ERA.

The veteran’s return means the Giants will have their three top guns — Madison Bumgarner, Cueto and Samardzija — in the rotation at the same time for the first time this season.

Samardzija will be opposed by Cardinals right-hander Carlos Martinez (5-4, 3.20), who is coming off consecutive strong outings against Cleveland and Arizona, giving up a total of four runs in 12 innings in a pair of wins.

He will be pitching in San Francisco for just the second time in his career, having allowed one run in five innings in a Cardinals win in 2014.

Martinez is 2-1 with a 3.09 ERA in his career against the Giants in five games, including three starts.

The 26-year-old has dominated his head-to-heads with several of the Giants’ top hitters, including Buster Posey (1-for-9, .111) and Andrew McCutchen (7-for-39, .179). McCutchen delivered the eventual game-winning hit in Friday’s San Francisco win.

St. Louis welcomed back Paul DeJong from the DL on Friday and he responded immediately with a hit and scored both of the Cardinals’ runs.

The standout second baseman had been out for seven weeks with a fractured hand.

The Cardinals didn’t have closer Bud Norris available to them in the first two games of the series after he experienced pain in his right index finger in Arizona on Wednesday.

Norris, a San Francisco Bay Area native, underwent an MRI on Friday and was cleared to remain on the active roster.

He threw a side session before Friday’s game and Cardinals manager Mike Matheny announced he would be available to pitch on Saturday.

“At this point in this season, we’re going to get every look at every guy we can Youth C.J. Mosley Jersey ,” Matheny said of recent roster shuffling that included the return outfielder Dexter Fowler from the DL on Thursday. “Whenever they get a runny nose, I think we’ll have two different doctors check it out. It’s that kind of year. Be cautious when we can.”

Fowler hasn’t started either game in the series, but is a candidate to play Saturday based on his five career extra-base hits, including a home run, in 33 at-bats against Samardzija.

Marcel Hirscher won a slalom on Thursday to match Italian great Alberto Tomba’s tally of 50 men’s World Cup wins.

The six-time overall champion from Austria became only the fourth male skier to reach that mark, also joining Hermann Maier (54) and Ingemar Stenmark (86).

On the women’s circuit, only Lindsey Vonn (78), Annemarie Moser-Proell (62) and Vreni Schneider (55) have passed the 50-win milestone.

”I haven’t been following Alberto’s career very closely. For me the `Sandmann’ was more interesting back then,” Hirscher quipped, referring to a character from a German-language children’s TV program in the 1990s.

Tomba, who also won Olympic gold in slalom and twice in GS, won his last race shortly before retiring in March 1998, while Hirscher turned nine that month.

”I am very proud of this, definitely, but I am very thankful on the other side for being healthy all the time,” the Austrian said. Hirscher quickly recovered from fracturing his left ankle in preseason training in August and didn’t have to sit out a race because of the injury.

He would have missed the season-opening giant slalom in October but that race was canceled due to bad weather.

Watched by 11,000 spectators under floodlights on Thursday, Hirscher beat his Austrian teammate and first-run leader, Michael Matt, by 0.05 seconds. Henrik Kristoffersen of Norway was 0.11 behind in third, with another Austrian, Manuel Feller, trailing by 0.79 in fourth.

”Zagreb is a unique race Womens C.J. Mosley Jersey ,” said Hirscher after his fourth win here. ”Standing in the finish area, seeing all the lights from the city, they are shining really bright up to the hill. It is something really special.”

With his third slalom win and fifth overall this season, Hirscher stretched his lead in the overall standings to 94 points over second-place Kristoffersen.

The Norwegian got his seventh podium but is still awaiting his first win of the season. He led the race with only Hirscher and Matt still to come, and lost his temper and kicked a chair in the finish area as soon as Hirscher edged his time.

”When I am disappointed, I am not afraid of (showing) it. I am really disappointed with doing the mistake on the flat that makes it a third place instead of a win,” said Kristoffersen, the Olympic slalom bronze medalist from 2014.

”I skied so good at the top and so good at the bottom, so this mistake is what makes me angry. I think, as an athlete, you are allowed to be angry, and then you let it go.”

The result gave Hirscher his 114th World Cup podium, equaling the Austrian record set by Moser-Proell. Only Stenmark (155) and Vonn (131) have finished more times in the top three of a World Cup event.

Matt, the younger brother of 2014 Olympic slalom champion Mario Matt, posted the fastest time and led Hirscher by 0.21 after the opening run.

Chasing his second career win, Matt was the last starter in the final run and initially extended his lead over Hirscher to 0.60 seconds, but his advantage was only 0.17 at the final split time and he lost over two tenths in the finish section.

”The top section was really good, but the middle section wasn’t that good so I lost lots of time there. The last five, six gates I didn’t push enough,” said Matt, who also finished runner-up in a city event in Oslo last Monday.

The men’s World Cup moves to Switzerland this weekend for a GS and another slalom in Adelboden.