Tonight, the NL West leading Colorado Rockies will travel to AT&T Park to take on the San Francisco Giants in a three-game series for the second time this season. They're coming off a series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, though they did avoid the sweep, losing two games to one. San Francisco is coming off a two-to-one series win over the New York Mets, and are looking to gain some ground within the NL West despite very uninspired play of late. Winning these games in their division will do a lot to help them out when staring in the face of so much inconsistency.
Matt Cain will take the mound tonight for the Giants. Cain is currently 2-2 with a 3.28 ERA, and is generally looking good out there, but he hasn't had a win in his last three outings. His last outing wasn't terrible, despite a loss at the hands of the Washington Nationals. He went six innings with seven hits and three runs, while walking two and fanning six batters. One of his two losses came at the hands of the Rockies, when he gave up six runs off of nine hits, including a homerun, while striking out six in a 10-2 loss on April 20th.
Ubaldo Jimenez is looking for his first victory of the year, he's 0-2 in four starts with a 7.20 ERA. He gave up four runs off of six hits in only four innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates in his last outing. His other loss came against the Giants on April 19th, pitching five innings and giving up four runs in the 6-3 loss. Jimenez is now 5-6 with a 3.34 ERA in fifteen starts against the Giants.
The lineup will be different this time, at least for the Giants, with Pablo Sandoval out. Mike Fontenot was a guy who the Giants depended on for a homerun, what does that say about their hitting? Probably not much, considering their propensity to be either really hot or really cold. They'll need to be hot to take out the division leading Rockies.