San Francisco Giants Travel To Colorado To Face Rockies In A Battle For First Place

Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Fresh off of a stretch of seventeen games in seventeen days, the First Place Giants are set to face the Second Place Rockies for three games at Coors Field in Colorado. It is still early in the season, and this isn’t a make or break series for either team, but a series win for the Giants would be great to increase their 3 game lead in the division over the Rockies.

These two teams have already faced each other six times this season, with each team winning two of three at home.

The series begins tonight at 5:40 pm PT

Giants Madison Bumgarner (5-3, 3.25 ERA) versus Rockies Franklin Morales (3-3, 5.40 ERA).

During his last start, Bumgarner pitched 5 innings and surrendered 4 earned runs while striking out 5 in a 10-4 win over the Braves.

Last time out, Morales also pitched 5 innings giving up 4 runs ( 2 home runs) in a 5-1 loss to the Royals

Game 2 of the series is set for Wednesday at 5:40 pm PT

Giants Matt Cain (1-3, 4.33 ERA) versus Rockies Jhoulys Chacin (0-2, 4.76 ERA)

Cain finally got his first win of the season in his last start versus the Marlin on Thursday. In that start, Cain pitched 7.2 innings giving up 4 runs in the 6-4 win. The 4 runs scored by the Marlins were all in the first 4 innings and Cain settled down and was a lot better after the fourth.

Last time out, Chacin faced the Royals and gave up 3 runs in 6 innings pitched in the 3-2 loss.

Third and final game of the series is set for Thursday at 12:10 pm PT

Giants TBA versus Rockies Jorge De La Rosa (5-3, 4.14 ERA)

According to the Giants official website, they have no starter listed, but I would expect this start to made by Tim Hudson (4-2, 2.09 ERA).  Hudson missed his last start with a strained left hip.

De La Rosa was great last time out versus the Padres, 1 hit 0 runs in 7 innings in a 3-1 win.

Unfortunately we won’t see a Bumgarner versus De La Rosa match up, which means we won’t get a repeat of this from Bumgarner.

One thing you can surely expect to see in these 3 games is a lot of home runs, Rockies lead the National League with 62 home runs, Giants are second with 51.

Rockies Short Stop Troy Tulowitski is having a MVP type season thus far, leading the NL in almost every offensive category.

Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval has been heating with the bat over the last 12 games.

There is still no word on Angel Pagan, who is nursing a sprained left shoulder. I would hope that he is a good to go and the shoulder is healed enough to play in the series with no further issues.