Having beaten the San Francisco Giants for the first time in 11 months, the visiting Colorado Rockies hope to begin a winning streak of their own when the three-game series continues Saturday afternoon.
The Giants’ run of dominance over the Rockies stood at 11 straight games dating back to last Aug. 21 before Ezequiel Tovar launched a tie-breaking, three-run homer in the seventh inning of a 5-2 victory Friday night.
San Francisco had extended its dominance by three games with a sweep in Colorado last month. The Giants outscored the Rockies 21-12 in those wins.
But the Giants, who were within 1 1/2 games of the National League West lead on June 24, have dropped eight of 11 since then. They have been held to three or fewer runs on eight of those occasions, including the last three.
Scratching out just five hits and totaling just two runs — on a Brandon Crawford home run — likely only further convinced Giants general manager Farhad Zaidi of what he had said going into the final series of the season’s first half.
“Getting a little bit more offensive stability from the middle infield is going to be something that we take a look at,” he said. “(Crawford) has definitely been swinging the bat better after a little bit of a slow start in April, so that’s been good to see. Some of the younger guys in the mix at second — Casey (Schmitt), Brett Wisely — we think those guys have a chance to be good offensive players.
“You always hope the solution comes internally, but we’ll have to look at that as a potential area to go out and get some help.”
The last-place Rockies have found themselves engulfed in far more trade rumors than the Giants as the deadline approaches. They arrived in town having lost four in a row.
Interestingly, much of the talk had been about the team’s lack of power this season, before Tovar and Ryan McMahon provided all the needed offense in Friday’s win with home runs.
The expected chief power sources entering the season — C.J. Cron and Randal Grichuk — find themselves as the most talked about Rockies in the rumors.
It’s something the team is going to have to play with until after the deadline, Grichuk acknowledged before contributing a pair of doubles on Friday.
“I try not to worry about it, honestly,” he said. “I’m a Colorado Rockie until the GM or assistant GM gives me a call. It’s all just rumors until you get a phone call.”
The Giants have pitching issues as well. After getting just 3 2/3 innings from Ross Stripling on Friday, the club appears headed to a full bullpen day in the rematch, with right-hander Ryan Walker (2-0, 2.57 ERA) serving as the opener. Walker has faced the Rockies just once, striking out two in one scoreless inning on June 6.
The Rockies are set to go with righty Connor Seabold (1-5, 6.62), who is winless in his last nine outings, going 0-5 with a 7.74 ERA. The California native has lost his last three decisions, getting pounding by the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers for 21 runs and 21 hits in 13 innings.
Seabold has faced San Francisco just once previously in his career. The 27-year-old pitched one of his better games when the Giants visited Colorado in June, limiting them to two runs and two hits in six innings in an eventual 5-4 loss. He did not get a decision.
–Field Level Media
