The Colorado Rockies are winners in eight of their last nine games, including a seven-game winning streak that was snapped by the Chicago Cubs, before coming back to beat them 9-5 in their last outing. The San Francisco Giants are coming to Coors Field to challenge the NL West leaders to make up some ground and get out of there with, at the very least a series victory, but a three-game sweep would be particularly sweet. It's debatable as to how good the Rockies are, so early in the season and with the schedule they've faced so far, and they do sport dissimilar records against similar opponents, so this set will be rather revealing.
San Francisco will be sending pitching ace Tim Lincecum to the mound - it's the top of the order for the Rockies. Lincecum is 1-1 with a 1.86 ERA in three starts so far this year, and has looked mostly sharp thus far. His last outing didn't go as planned, pitching only six innings and giving up three earned runs off of six hits while striking out four, but was given a no-decision in a Giants 5-4 victory. His outing prior was something to be admired, a game against the San Diego Padres in which he struck out thirteen batters and earned the win.
In their last outing, the Giants were dealt a 6-5 loss in extra innings to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Nothing was going right through the first half of the game, but something clicked when Aubrey Huff got his first homerun of the year. Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval both followed suit with homeruns of their own, and soon the Giants had a lead back. But as they slowly ran out of arms, they played Dan Runzler just a bit too long, and he ended up giving up a walk that would eventually score the winning run off of Javier Lopez.
The Rockies are sending Esmil Rogers to the mound to battle with Lincecum. Rogers sports a 2.77 ERA and has won both of his outings this year thanks to solid run support from the team with the best record in baseball. Rogers worked hard his last time out, pitching just 5 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs off of seven hits and four walks. He only allowed a single run in his previous outing earlier in the year, though.
Good news for the Giants? He's 0-1 against them in two starts, with a 7.07 ERA, giving up eleven runs across four total games against them.