Giants-Rockies preview
DENVER -- The San Francisco Giants hope three games at hitter-friendly Coors Field will be a tonic for their stagnant offense as they eye October.
The Colorado Rockies, their postseason hopes unrealistic at this point, will try to bounce back from a series loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks and end a homestand with a winning record when they begin a three-game series Monday with the Giants.
The teams last played July 6. The Giants are 7-6 against the Rockies this season, and the teams have split six games at Coors Field.
The Giants are 33-21 against the National League West, which is the best intra-divisional record for any team in the division but not a telling statistic given how the Giants have stumbled in the second half.
The Giants will be playing a divisional opponent for the first time since July 17 when they were swept in a three-game series at San Diego. That was San Francisco's first series after the All-Star break when their season began to take a miserable turn.
The Giants lost 3-2 in 13 innings Sunday to the high-flying Chicago Cubs, dropping three of four games at Wrigley Field. All four games were decided by one run. The Giants scored 10 runs on 14 hits in the series. They were held to four hits or fewer in four consecutive games for the first time since June 13-16, 1963.
"I'm good with how hard they played in this series," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of his team.
The Giants fell three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West and lead St. Louis by 1 1/2 games in the race for the top wild-card spot.
At the All-Star break, the Giants led the NL West by 6 1/2 games and were 57-33. But their record after the break is a major league worst 16-30. The Giants are 7-17 on the road in the second half.
Colorado is the second stop on a 10-game, 11-day trip for the Giants that will end at Arizona. Left-hander Matt Moore will make his seventh start for the Giants. He is 2/3 with a 3.16 ERA in six starts since being acquired from Tampa Bay. Moore threw 133 pitches on Aug. 25 at Los Angeles, leaving after Corey Seager broke up his no-hitter with a two-out single in the ninth.
Moore then threw 92 pitches in his last start Wednesday and gave up five hits and one run in 5 1/3 innings against the Diamondbacks and won his second straight start as the Giants triumphed 4-2.
Moore's one appearance against the Rockies came at Coors Field in 2013 while pitching for the Rays.
The Rockies dropped the final two games in their three-game set with the Diamondbacks and are 3-3 on a homestand that will conclude with the Giants series. Colorado is 35-34 at Coors Field this season.
Chad Bettis will be pitching on seven days' rest when he opposes the Giants on Monday. The Rockies didn't want him to face Arizona on Sunday, since he had made four starts against them with limited success this season. Bettis is 11-7 with a 5.17 ERA. The Rockies have won each of Bettis' last seven starts at Coors Field, where he is 5-2 with a 5.40 ERA in 11 outings this season.
Bettis is 2/3 with a 5.28 ERA in five career starts against the Giants, including a May 6 loss at San Francisco, where he gave up five runs and eight hits in six innings as the Rockies fell 6-4.
With an eye toward next season, the Rockies are working Tom Murphy into their catching corps, which includes starter Nick Hundley, a free agent after this season, and backup Tony Wolters. Murphy was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque on Friday. He singled as a pinch-hitter Friday and went 1-for-4 with one RBI in a start Saturday. Murphy pinch hit Sunday and hit a 482-foot home run down the left-field line in the seventh, stayed in the game and singled in the ninth.
"It looked like it might have been a pitch on the inner half that he got the barrel to," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said of the massive homer Murphy hit off left-hander Patrick Corbin. "He's a strong kid, so he gets it airborne, and it goes a long way."
