San Francisco Giants (30-25, 2nd in the NL West)
2011 Record vs. Colorado: May 16-17, 2011 (L 0-2 at Coors Field)
After dominating the first two series of 2011 vs. the Rockies, San Francisco suffered a mini-sweep in Denver as Colorado was able to complete consecutive comebacks against the Giants' pitching staff. As the title of this piece states, those two wins amounted to 25% of the Rockies' victories during the month of May.
In the first game, Tim Lincecum rather noticeably did not have his best stuff from the outset, but he was able to hold serve until the fifth, when he walked Rockies starting pitcher Clayton Mortensen to lead off the inning. From there, the Rockies loaded the bases on a single and another walk in between a sacrifice bunt. Troy Tulowitzki then smacked a single to centerfield that plated two runs and gave the Rockies a slim lead. After the Giants regained the lead in the sixth on the strength of two homers (one, of course, came off the bat of the ever-so-annoying Nate Schierholtz), the Rockies hit two of their own off of Lincecum in the bottom half of the inning - the deathblow being a three-run shot by Carlos Gonzalez. The Freak's final line saw him give up seven runs in 5.2 innings, while walking six batters compared to just three strikeouts.
The second game saw Jonathan Sanchez dominate the Rockies lineup for seven innings, allowing just a Troy Tulowitzki solo home run in the second while striking out five and walking nobody as the Giants held a 3-1 lead going into the eighth. Bruce Bochy decided to stick with Sanchez, and that would come back to haunt the Giants as Colorado struck for four runs in the inning, capped by a two-run double off the bat of Carlos Gonzalez - giving him two consecutive game-winning hits. The Giants offense, meanwhile, did not score a single run after the third inning after going quietly into the night after the sixth inning in the previous contest.
Latest Series Results: L 1-2 at Milwaukee, currently up 2-1 at St. Louis
After losing their golden boy for the remainder of the season, the Giants have held up fairly well in a small sample size on their recent road trip, going 3-3 against tough NL Central competition.
Posey isn't the only guy that the Giants have been forced to play without, as injuries have taken a toll on what was already a fairly anemic offense. Pablo Sandoval has been out since the end of April, while Mike Fontenot and Brandon Belt have recently suffered injuries as well (though Belt's hasn't resulted in any DL time - yet).
They've been helped out offensively by rookie Brandon Crawford, who has a .984 OPS in his first 21 big league plate appearances. In addition, Nate Schierholtz (.813) and Cody Ross (1.061) have OPS'd well over the past couple of series. Pitching-wise, you always know what to expect - Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez, and Bumgarner are going to keep them in the game. However, sixth starter Ryan Vogelsong has been just as good as those other guys in filling in for Barry Zito. In fact, his 214 ERA+ leads their rotation by a fairly wide margin (Lincecum is next at 146).
It is NEVER an easy task facing the Giants' pitching staff. At AT&T Park, that task only gets more difficult. The Rockies already proved this the last time the played a series there. Coincidentally, they will face the same three starters in this series. Let's hope we see different results.
Expected pitching matchups and more after the jump...
Friday through Sunday: 3-game series at AT&T Park
Expected Pitching Matchups
Friday, June 3, 2011 @ 8:15 PM MT
Saturday, June 4, 2011 @ 2:10 PM MT on FOX
Sunday, June 5, 2011 @ 2:05 PM MT
Expected Lineup
| Name | Position | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | RBI |
| Andres Torres | CF | .252 | .336 | .427 | .353 | 120 | 2 | 9 |
| Miguel Tejada |
3B | .210 | .233 | .272 | .217 | 29 | 1 | 16 |
| Freddy Sanchez | 2B | .298 | .341 | .409 | .326 | 102 | 2 | 18 |
| Aubrey Huff | 1B | .219 | .279 | .348 | .276 | 68 | 5 | 24 |
| Nate Schierholtz |
RF | .274 | .319 | .453 | .330 | 105 | 4 | 15 |
| Cody Ross |
LF | .267 | .351 | .414 | .343 | 114 | 4 | 14 |
| Brandon Crawford |
SS | .333 | .429 | .556 | .443 | 181 | 1 | 6 |
| Eli Whiteside |
C | .200 | .288 | .311 | .257 | 55 | 1 | 2 |
*In the inevitable event that this ends up being wrong, just remember that predicting a Bruce Bochy lineup is about as easy as predicting a Jim Tracy lineup.
Bench
| Name | Position | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | RBI |
| Chris Stewart | C | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | -100 | 0 | 0 |
| Emmanuel Burriss |
UTIL | .286 | .286 | .286 | .271 | 65 | 0 | 2 |
| Brandon Belt |
1B/OF | .211 | .328 | .281 | .296 | 82 | 1 | 4 |
| Pat Burrell |
OF | .229 | .344 | .389 | .333 | 107 | 5 | 13 |
| Aaron Rowand |
OF | .247 | .296 | .367 | .291 | 78 | 1 | 10 |
Closer
Injuries