Offense quiet as Giants drop series to Rockies

The San Francisco Giants are at Coors Field, and every single pitcher on the staff is ready to leave. The Giants offense on the other hand, would love to stick around, as the bats have been great this series. After back to back games allowing ten runs, the Giants pitching has been terrible, but Matt Cain looks to be a little less terrible today. 

The free-falling San Francisco Giants come into Coors with the second worst record in all of MLB. After losing the first two games, the Giants find themselves sporting a 26-43 record halfway through June. With the Giants seventeen games under .500, Coors field could not come at a worse time. An exciting come from behind game on Thursday, ended abruptly on a walk off single by the Rockies. Another solid offensive day yesterday for the Giants made another loss a little more bearable. Today’s game would be a totally different story. After both teams slugged it out for the past two games, both offenses were held fairly quiet, as we saw a rare Coors Field pitching duel.

Matt Cain seemed to run into a little bit of trouble almost every inning, but got out of quite a few jams. The Rockies would jump on the board first in the bottom of the second, on a single from Rockies catcher Tony Wolters, scoring Carlos Gonzalez.

As both offenses were quiet early on, the Giants knotted the score at one in the top of the fourth, as the red-hot (No this is not a typo) Gorkys Hernandez tied the game on an RBI single to right scoring Nick Hundley. With Hernadez’s hot streak, his batting average has raised to a whopping .216. So basically, he’s locked down a roster spot for the rest of summer…

Cain would run into more trouble in the bottom of the fifth, as the Rockies put on a couple runners with two outs in the inning. After an Ian Desmond single, and a Carlos Gonzalez walk, the Rockies added on another with an RBI single from Trevor Story, making it a 2-1 Rockies lead.

Matt Cain would be pulled after five innings, allowing just the two runs while striking out three. The bullpen would come in and pretty much melt down right away. Bottom of the sixth, Bryan Morris would come in and give up a run as Nolan Arenado singles in the third Rockies run of the game. Bottom of  the seventh now, Morris allows a couple hits and a walk and the Rockies are threatening again. A couple of bloop hits would allow a couple more runs to score, as Wolters and Valaika would each knock in runs to give the Rockies a 5-1 lead.

The Giants offense was non-existent all day, and failed to put up more than one just one run. After back to back games of 8+ runs, the offense goes silent as soon as the pitching does its part. A frustrating series thus far, the Giants look to bounce back tomorrow and avoid being swept at Coors for the second straight time.

Not many things to highlight in this game, but there were a couple positive notes to take away.

• Joe Panik continues to swing a red-hot bat. After a 3-5 performance today, Panik has raised his average to .274 on the year as he begins to heat up at the top of the lineup.
• Matt Cain (despite only going five innings) pitched okay today. He was working in and out of jams all game long, but you cant complain if your starting pitcher only gives up one earned run through five innings at Coors.
• Gorkys Hernandez…He’s heating up and actually being productive. I hate to say it, but he’s swinging the bat better right now than some of the other guys in the lineup. As players begin to come off the DL, a hot-hitting Gorkys will be a nice piece off the bench.
• Austin Slater has been phenomenal since being called up. His bat is definitely a spark plug in this inconsistent Giants offense. We might have just found our left fielder folks…

More from Around the Foghorn

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• SF Giants call on veteran LHP Scott Kazmir for big start against Padres
• SF Giants: Update on Alex Dickerson’s rehab assignment
• Atlanta claims SF Giants C Chadwick Tromp off waivers
• SF Giants: Could Johnny Cueto help down the stretch?

Tomorrow the Giants send Ty Blach to the mound to try and avoid the four game sweep at the hand of the Rockies. Blach was roughed up against Kansas City, allowing seven earned runs, and Coors Field is not the ideal place to bounce back…

Next: What are the Giants going to do with Cueto?

Tune in tomorrow at 12:10 PM as Blach takes on Tyler Chatwood