San Francisco Giants (79-70 / 2nd in the NL West / 7.5 GB)
Last season, the eventual World Series champs all but ended the Rockies' playoff chances in a series at Coors Field in September. This season, the Rockies are hoping to return the favor, and a series victory would more or less do the trick, as the Giants are currently 7.5 back with only 13 games left to play.
2011 Record vs. Colorado: 7-4 (39 runs scored, 35 runs allowed)
Last Series vs. Rockies: June 3-5 (W 2-1 at AT&T Park)
The Giants took the opener 3-1 behind a strong performance from Matt Cain, who went seven innings and allowed just a run on four hits. Meanwhile, Juan Nicasio surrendered three runs on five hits, including two doubles, in the fourth inning and the Giants held on from there. Emmanuel Burris (!?) had three hits for San Francisco, while Cody Ross had a pair of his own.
Game two saw Jhoulys Chacin craft his way through the Giants lineup despite not having his best stuff, and the Rockies held on to win 2-1 in the Fox Saturday telecast. Troy Tulowitzki led the way with three hits, including the patented "RBI single in which he gets himself thrown out at second base." That dastardly Cody Ross hurt the Rox again, this time with a solo homer off of Chacin, but it wasn't enough to give his team their 873rd one-run win of 2011 as Madison Bumgarner lost yet again despite out-pitching his opponent.
The Giants did, however, get that not-so-elusive one-run victory in the finale, and it was in particularly annoying fashion. Chris Iannetta got the Rox on the board in the fifth inning with a solo homer off of Ryan Vogelsong, but his club coughed up the lead in the following inning and gave up the eventual game-winner two innings after that. Jason Hammel was charged with the loss despite only allowing one earned run in seven frames of work. Each team only had four hits in the game. Even worse, Ty Wigginton and Miguel Tejada combined for half of them.
Latest Series Results: L 1-2 vs. Los Angeles (NL), W 3-0 vs. San Diego
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The usual stuff after the jump...
Thursday through Sunday: 4-game series at Coors Field
Expected Pitching Matchups
Thursday, September 15, 2011 @ 6:40 PM MT
Friday, September 16, 2011 @ 6:10 PM MT
Saturday, September 17, 2011 @ 6:10 PM MT
Sunday, September 18, 2011 @ 1:10 PM MT
Team Stats - Hitting
| Name | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | HR | RBI |
| Pablo Sandoval | 0.301 | 0.345 | 0.511 | 0.359 | 127 | 19 | 61 |
| Buster Posey | 0.284 | 0.368 | 0.389 | 0.338 | 112 | 4 | 21 |
| Andres Torres | 0.223 | 0.31 | 0.33 | 0.295 | 82 | 3 | 18 |
| Nate Schierholtz | 0.278 | 0.326 | 0.43 | 0.327 | 105 | 9 | 41 |
| Freddy Sanchez | 0.289 | 0.332 | 0.397 | 0.316 | 96 | 3 | 24 |
| Mike Fontenot | 0.221 | 0.301 | 0.357 | 0.29 | 79 | 3 | 14 |
| Carlos Beltran | 0.325 | 0.367 | 0.558 | 0.397 | 153 | 5 | 14 |
| Aaron Rowand | 0.233 | 0.274 | 0.347 | 0.27 | 66 | 4 | 21 |
| Cody Ross | 0.235 | 0.324 | 0.395 | 0.316 | 97 | 13 | 49 |
| Pat Burrell | 0.23 | 0.349 | 0.41 | 0.339 | 112 | 7 | 21 |
| Chris Stewart | 0.199 | 0.278 | 0.267 | 0.24 | 45 | 1 | 7 |
| Brandon Belt | 0.218 | 0.307 | 0.367 | 0.304 | 89 | 5 | 12 |
| Ryan Vogelsong | 0.191 | 0.24 | 0.213 | 0.21 | 24 | 0 | 2 |
| Jonathan Sanchez | 0.207 | 0.233 | 0.345 | 0.251 | 52 | 0 | 1 |
| Eli Whiteside | 0.212 | 0.282 | 0.333 | 0.269 | 65 | 4 | 17 |
| Darren Ford | 0.25 | 0.357 | 0.25 | 0.241 | 45 | 0 | 0 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 0.098 | 0.179 | 0.157 | 0.161 | -9 | 0 | 1 |
| Brett Pill | 0.294 | 0.294 | 0.706 | 0.424 | 171 | 2 | 3 |
| Santiago Casilla | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.692 | 355 | 0 | 0 |
| Dan Runzler | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.692 | 355 | 0 | 0 |
| Jeff Keppinger | 0.276 | 0.309 | 0.37 | 0.3 | 86 | 2 | 13 |
| Jeremy Affeldt | 0 | 0.5 | 0 | 0.346 | 118 | 0 | 0 |
| Guillermo Mota | 0.111 | 0.111 | 0.222 | 0.141 | -23 | 0 | 0 |
| Hector Sanchez | 0.154 | 0.267 | 0.231 | 0.236 | 42 | 0 | 1 |
| Eric Surkamp | 0 | 0.167 | 0 | 0.115 | -41 | 0 | 0 |
| Ramon Ramirez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -100 | 0 | 0 |
| Conor Gillaspie | 0.222 | 0.3 | 0.222 | 0.247 | 49 | 0 | 0 |
| Javier Lopez | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -100 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Rohlinger | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -100 | 0 | 0 |
| Matt Cain | 0.1 | 0.141 | 0.117 | 0.122 | -37 | 0 | 4 |
| Mark DeRosa | 0.269 | 0.338 | 0.299 | 0.296 | 83 | 0 | 9 |
| Barry Zito | 0 | 0.071 | 0 | 0.049 | -86 | 0 | 0 |
| Miguel Tejada | 0.239 | 0.27 | 0.326 | 0.254 | 54 | 4 | 26 |
| Justin Christian | 0.118 | 0.167 | 0.176 | 0.145 | -21 | 0 | 1 |
| Tim Lincecum | 0.088 | 0.133 | 0.088 | 0.109 | -45 | 0 | 1 |
| Brandon Crawford | 0.186 | 0.269 | 0.251 | 0.232 | 39 | 2 | 18 |
| Manny Burriss | 0.215 | 0.266 | 0.223 | 0.235 | 41 | 0 | 4 |
| Bill Hall | 0.158 | 0.22 | 0.211 | 0.199 | 17 | 0 | 1 |
| Orlando Cabrera | 0.224 | 0.244 | 0.25 | 0.215 | 28 | 0 | 12 |
| Aubrey Huff | 0.245 | 0.305 | 0.373 | 0.294 | 82 | 12 | 58 |
Team Stats - Pitching
| Name | W | L | IP | K/9 | BB/9 | ERA | xFIP |
| Matt Cain | 11 | 10 | 209.1 | 7.31 | 2.41 | 2.79 | 3.67 |
| Madison Bumgarner | 11 | 12 | 186.2 | 8.58 | 2.17 | 3.33 | 3.07 |
| Tim Lincecum | 13 | 12 | 205 | 9.31 | 3.56 | 2.59 | 3.27 |
| Ryan Vogelsong | 10 | 7 | 162.1 | 6.87 | 3.1 | 2.66 | 3.89 |
| Sergio Romo | 3 | 1 | 44 | 12.48 | 1.02 | 1.43 | 1.75 |
| Ramon Ramirez | 3 | 3 | 62 | 9 | 3.48 | 2.9 | 3.41 |
| Jonathan Sanchez | 4 | 7 | 101.1 | 9.06 | 5.86 | 4.26 | 4.34 |
| Javier Lopez | 5 | 2 | 50.2 | 6.93 | 4.62 | 2.84 | 3.98 |
| Brian Wilson | 6 | 4 | 53.2 | 8.72 | 5.2 | 3.19 | 3.95 |
| Santiago Casilla | 2 | 2 | 46.1 | 7.77 | 4.47 | 1.36 | 3.8 |
| Jeremy Affeldt | 3 | 2 | 61.2 | 7.88 | 3.5 | 2.63 | 3.38 |
| Dan Runzler | 1 | 2 | 23 | 8.61 | 5.87 | 7.43 | 4.09 |
| Eric Surkamp | 2 | 0 | 16.2 | 3.24 | 2.7 | 3.24 | 4.95 |
| Waldis Joaquin | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4.5 | 0 | 0 | 2.64 |
| Guillermo Mota | 2 | 2 | 73.1 | 8.47 | 3.31 | 3.68 | 3.58 |
| Steven Edlefsen | 0 | 0 | 8.1 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 3.24 | 4.43 |
| Barry Zito | 3 | 4 | 49.2 | 5.07 | 3.62 | 5.62 | 4.6 |
Closer
Injuries