After winning the series from the two top NL teams of recent ilk, the Giants face probably their biggest hurdle in the NL West, Colorado. Though they are not currently the leader in the division, they did make the World Series recently and when Tulo is producing, they have been probably the Top NL West team over the past few years (unfortunately for them, he's not always healthy).
Game 1: Aaron Cook vs. Barry Zito
Aaron Cook has a 5.01 ERA this season, and Barry Zito is not even close, and fortunately now on the good side of not even close. However, Cook has been searching for that mystical something and found it in his last start, throwing a good game, earning a 4 PQS but with only 4 K's, not necessarily will repeat, particularly because he's been so wild thus far this season, in terms of walks and lack of strikeouts. He has also done well in SF, 3.72 ERA career with a 3-3 record, but horrible walks and strikeout ratios, any way you want to slice it, plus gave up more hits than IP.
Plus, given how well Zito has pitched, earning a "Barry Barry Barry" chant at his last start in AT&T - who would have even thunk that would ever happen? - we should win this game.
Game 2: Esmil Rogers vs. Matt Cain
Esmil Rogers is not even announced for this game. Andy Baggarly speculated on it. In any case, it is going to be a minor leaguer who will be facing the Giants. Rogers is #9 on BA's Top 30 prospects list and #11 in Minor League Baseball Analyst Top 15 list in Colorado's farm system (remember, on average around 4 prospect from any season, or so it's been guesstimated by BP's Goldstein, ever amount to anything at the major league level), and the latter projects him to be a #4 starter. Plus FB (89-94 MPH) and Plus Slurve
but no other even average pitch. "Lacks a quality erd offering - not enough velocity difference on change - and has difficulty maintaining velocity deep into games, which may result in a move to relief." They noted he's "diminutive". He was beat to a pulp in AAA last season, but was good in AA. He's been good so far in AAA this season but he's never been one to strike out many.
We better win the game with Cain going for us.
Game 3: Jhoulys Chacin vs. Jonathan Sanchez
Chacin is one of their top prospects for years now. Only 22 and he pitched well in AA and AAA last season plus thus far in AAA this season. He's also pitched a little in the majors last season, doing OK, striking out a lot while not giving up many hits, but walking a lot. He wasn't the strikeout guy in the minors, but appears to be catching up with hitters the past year, but also going very wild as well. Even if their starters didn't go on the DL, he probably would have been pushing to be added to the rotation, he's been great so far in the minors.
He's going to be a very tough pitcher once he figures things out. The Giants get to find out whether he has or not, in his first start this season in the majors. Sanchez, however, seems to have figured things out, and I expect him to continue to be dominant the rest of the season. We should win this game, barring Chacin's enlightenment..
Giants Thoughts
We are situated well in each game, but things can go off the rails in any of these games for any reason, so I won't be thinking sweep, particularly because they have always played us tough generally. They are currently 11-11, so they are not that tough either. Plus I read somewhere that they didn't win often in SF in recent years. So I think a series win should happen, giving the Giants wins in all three series in this homestand.
The starting pitching is humming along, and maybe Bochy needs to bring in the bullpen more often so that they don't get rusty waiting. The offense also did nicely in the Phillies series, beating up on Roy Halladay in particular, and hopefully can build on that in this series. Hopefully Schierholtz will hit higher in the lineup and get the opportunity to drive in more runs.
Another nice start by Zito. Huff had a good game, got on base 4 times. People are all upset over, really just a 3 game stretch where he did not get a hit. Uribe is proving me wrong, maybe getting tossed on his keister by ChiSox made him work harder, maybe being on the team that his relative, Jose Uribe, has given him inspiration, but still, four years of suck is hard to ignore.
ReplyDeleteBad news is that Wilson has a groin thing that kept him out of the game, which is where having Romo, then Affeldt around pays off. J got the save.
However, Renteria is proving to be brittle, first shoulder problems kept him out of some games, then he had to leave this game for agroin thing. The good thing is that Bochy went l/r and put in Bowker In LF and moved DeRosa to 2B and Uribe to SS.
groins are iffy, so I see JB starting RHP and Downs for LHP for a few games.
given that D-Rox NL West oefay, it would be best if the Giants go for the jugular and try to sweep them. tomorrow hopefully is easy against minor leaguer but sometimes that works out for him because he is unfamiliar. Still Cain should be good enough.
Chacin, however, will be a whole lot harder. One game at a time, I guess...
Forgot to mention, they are 13-9 now. And just one win away from great home stand, if they can win one of next two, then they would have won series from three playoff contenders, serving notice to them that the Giants have home advantage. Not too shabby, they already have a winning home stand already. Exciting times!
ReplyDeletewell, the rox are banged up, so the real test doesnt come till later in the year when they are at full strength
ReplyDeletethe giants true next big test is the upcoming road trip
both the fish and the mets are playing very good ball
Good point to emphasize, bacci40, I think I did mention that D-Rox were banged up before.
ReplyDeleteStill, banged up or not, it is good to give a good beat down on Colorado, and probably imperative to do so now, otherwise they might get confidence that they are so good that once their pitchers do recover, they could do like last year and fly to the playoffs with a great second half.
And especially good point about the upcoming road trip, the Mets have been Amazing, haven't they?
Thought I should report this, heard it in the post-game talk so some might not have heard this: Jonathan Sanchez has been battling a bad cold for over a week now and he gutted out his last two starts not at 100%. The Giants were thinking of skipping him but he wanted to gut it out.
ReplyDeleteSo I don't blame the Giants for not showing patience with Sanchez, if they thought he was spent, I would trust their judgement on this (however, I have little confidence in Medders right now, and would have preferred seeing Runzler in there instead, though I understand you need to run Medders out there some time to build his confidence; just not when we want to sweep the Rockies, though).