San Francisco Giants (22-17, 1st in the NL West)
2011 Record vs. Colorado: 5-1
Last Series vs. Rockies: Friday, May 6-8 (W 3-0 at AT&T Park)
Nasty, Nasty, Nasty. For those of you who may have had the pleasure of being unconscious or in another country and out of earshot of San Francisco last weekend, you may have missed the 3 straight walkoff wins against the Rockies, 1 by Arizona and the next 2 by San Francisco. Here are the positives from that series:
- None of the 3 games were blowouts. The first two went to walkoffs (4-3, 3-2) and the 3rd was at least a save situation (3-0 shutout).
- Pitching looked good as a whole, not allowing more than 4 runs in any one of the games.
- Ubaldo Jimenez turned in a wildly effective start, going 6, striking out 7, but walking 5.
- Chris Iannetta was pretty effective.
Now here are the bad parts:
- The Rockies scored 5 total runs in that series without facing Matt Cain or Tim Lincecum.
- Major League Managers have no idea how to handle tie games on the road, with Jim Tracy being no exception.
- Ryan Vogelsong of the career 5.58 ERA had a perfecto against the Rockies going into the 6th.
- The team was 2-for-14 with RISP during that series.
- The Rockies were swept.
It's tough to find much to be pleased about when you see a series like that go down.
Latest Series Results: Split 1-1 @ Chicago, W 3-0 vs Arizona
In case you didn't notice, the Giants had a 15-16 record before the Rockies game to town. Now they're 22-17. When did the Colorado Rockies become the slumpbuster? It's not as if the Giants have played THAT well in that timeframe. In fact, over the past 8 games for San Francisco, the Giants have batted .238/.325/.377 and struck out 66 times. No exaggeration there. Andres Torres has been killing it in his 4 games back (.467/.529/.733, good for a 1.263 OPS), Cody Ross has been killing it, Aubrey Huff has been OK, and none of their other starters has mustered a .700+ OPS.
The immediate reaction is that the Rockies need to jump on this poor-hitting team, and fast, but wait until you see the pitching matchups past the jump.
Monday through Tuesday: 2-game series at Coors Field
Expected Pitching Matchups
Monday, May 16, 2011 @ 6:40 PM MT
I don't know if you noticed, but Lincecum is gunning for another CY this year. He's striking out over 10 batters per 9 innings, walking less than 3, and is riding 15 scoreless innings over 2 starts in May. I feel for Clay Mortensen, personally.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 @ 1:10 PM MT
Expected Lineup
Name | Position | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | RBI |
Andres Torres | CF | .349 | .429 | .512 | .425 | 167 | 0 | 2 |
Freddy Sanchez | 2B | .259 | .307 | .371 | .295 | 81 | 2 | 11 |
Aubrey Huff | 1B | .219 | .281 | .372 | .284 | 73 | 4 | 20 |
Buster Posey | C | .256 | .347 | .368 | .326 | 102 | 4 | 20 |
Cody Ross | OF | .239 | .292 | .358 | .285 | 74 | 2 | 7 |
Pat Burrell | LF | .232 | .350 | .424 | .349 | 117 | 5 | 9 |
Mike Fontenot | SS | .206 | .304 | .426 | .323 | 99 | 2 | 7 |
Miguel Tejada | 3B | .195 | .227 | .263 | .211 | 25 | 1 | 10 |
Bench
Name | Position | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | RBI |
Aaron Rowand | CF | .262 | .316 | .389 | .310 | 90 | 1 | 9 |
Nate Schierholtz | RF | .279 | .310 | .456 | .327 | 102 | 2 | 9 |
Darren Ford | OF | .222 | .364 | .222 | .250 | 51 | 0 | 0 |
Mark DeRosa | UTIL | .214 | .290 | .250 | .254 | 53 | 0 | 3 |
Eli Whiteside | C | .208 | .296 | .417 | .304 | 86 | 1 | 1 |
Closer
Injuries