Giants skipping No. 5 starter, shuffling rotation

LOS ANGELES -- Striving to enter the thick of the National League West race, the Giants opted to skip using a No. 5 starter and will send their hottest pitchers against the Reds this weekend at Great American Ball Park.

Dereck Rodriguez, Madison Bumgarner and Andrew Suarez will start for the Giants from Friday through Sunday, respectively. Thursday's off-day enabled the Giants to use their top starters without costing them rest. San Francisco entered Wednesday trailing first-place Arizona by five games in the NL West.

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Bochy mentioned "keeping these guys in order" as a reason for skipping the fifth starter, who would have been either Ty Blach or Casey Kelly. Bochy's…