Role reversal: after stumbling in the divisional chase, Rockies must fend off Giants' pursuit

The Giants could be in first place in the NL Wild Card Sunday.  Let that sink in a bit.  Technically, they would be tied with Colorado, but that's still borderline incomprehensible after last weekend.

While the Rockies were fumbling their chance to legitimize the divisional race, San Francisco gained a game on the Colorado by eeking out two one-run wins and getting blasted in one game against the Diamondbacks.  With the Rockies on the home docket so soon after three very frustrating losses, the Giants surely have retribution freshly in their minds.

Luckily for them, they have their top three pitchers going in the series.  Then consider that the Rockies' two hottest hitters this month - Dexter Fowler and Carlos Gonzalez - will both miss some if not all of the series with injuries.   That means the demoralization Colorado dealt the Giants last weekend is in danger of being completely wiped out with a possible sweep at AT&T Park this weekend, where the Giants' 41-21 mark is just a half game being Tampa Bay and Boston for the best home field advantage in MLB.

Fortunately, it's not all bad.  San Francisco's hottest hitters of late - and their 3 and 4 hitters - were both relegated to pinch-hit duty for the entirety of the Arizona series, and their status will likely be the same for at least tonight's game.  In addition, Freddy Sanchez was officially placed on the 15-day Tuesday after spending a week inactive on the bench, leaving the Giants' horrible offense without three of its top weapons.  

The Rockies counter Bruce Bochy's Linceum/Zito/Cain triumverate with Ubaldo Jimenez, who Jayson Stark says has "the best stuff in baseball," the ultimate WINNAR Jason Marquis, who Tim Kurkjian gave some love to this morning, and the Road Warrior Jason Hammel.  

Should be a competitive series.

Rather than putting virtually the same scouting information in KYF as last Friday, I'll refer you to last week's preview for any seemingly incomplete grading rationalization.

If you care to engage with Giants fans, enjoy:  McCovey Chronicles.  Here is their series preview.

San Francisco Giants (69-59, L1, 3rd, 3 GB WC, 7 GB Div) 

Friday-Sunday: 3-game series at AT&T Park

The Bats: F

The lineup will feature Juan Uribe and Eli Whiteside tonight most likely, but since both Molina and Sandoval are expected back Saturday, I'll leave them in the lineup.  Nothing has really changed from last Friday - they still have the 2nd worst wOBA in the league at .304, better than Cincy by the slimmest of margins.  I had not noticed this post before and it is now two weeks old, but most of the points hold true.  A fanpost at MCC shows the Giants are by far and away the most undisciplined offensive team as well as one of the worst.  Given their injury losses for tonight's game, the official loss of Sanchez and the move to AT&T, I downgraded their offense to an F.

By wOBA metrics, the lineup features one All-Star caliber players (Sandoval), one above average hitter (Garko), one slightly above average hitters (Rowand), two about average hitters (Winn, Schierholtz, Velez and Molina), and one that is just flat out bad (Renteria).

Juan Uribe (.267, 8, 31) is the utility infielder and Travis Ishikawa (.262, 9, 35) is back on the roster to spell Garko.  IF Ryan Rohlinger (0-for-5) is now on the bench with Sanchez on the shelf.  Fred Lewis (.268, 4, 16)  is the lone backup OF though Velez can slide to LF if necessary. Rookie Eli Whiteside (.229, 1, 7) is Molina's backup catcher.  As for tonight, Winn will likely be in the 3-hole, while Garko, Schierholtz and Ishikawa have each had their try at the cleanup spot.  

Hop after the jump for the scouting report on the arms, the D, the pitching matchups, injuries and the hot/cold players.

The Arms: A

It would be difficult to find a trio of pitchers a team would least like to face right now.  Lincecum and Cain were no-brainer All-Stars and Barry Zito continued his recent resurgence against Colorado Monday.  The Giants rank in the top three in just about ever pitching category there is - impressive given they don't get a benefit from the home park.

The bullpen composition hasn't changed .  After Wilson,there's Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo, Bob Howry, Merkin Valdez, Justin Miller and Brandon Medders.  

The D: B+

The Giants have MLB 2nd best UZR/150 helping Fangraphs to rate San Francisco's defense as #2 in MLB.  Putting Velez in at 2B is a downgrade from their season average though.  

The Ballpark:  Hitter's Park

AT&T being a pitcher's park is one of MLB's greater myths.  It has a multi-year park factor of 102, while this year it is 103/104.  For comparison, Coors Field is 105/106.  So AT&T is roughly halfway as advantageous for hitters as Coors.  The myth has some legs though.  It completely drowns home runs (factor of 86.1 for HR/FB), though it inflates triples by an even larger margin.  The park has also been advantageous for singles and doubles.

Probable Pitchers:

Tonight, 8:15 pm MDT

Dueling aces part deux.  As amoeba recently pointed out, Jimenez has obliterated the franchise record for consecutive 6+ inning starts.  You know all the awesomeness that is Timmy, but the Giants are just 3-6 in his starts vs the Rockies in his career, 1-2 at AT&T Park.  He also has a seasonlong four game winless streak.  Okay, it's mostly not his fault, but it's still true.  The Giants are -130 favorites in Vegas.   I'll just let the two young arms do the rest of the talking.  Favors:  GIANTS by the slimmest of margins, slimmer than Timmy's frame