Giants, Rockies each look to shake off rough starts

When it rains, it pours. Or in the case of the San Francisco Giants, it snows, even on a sunny California day.

The Giants not only lost a game Wednesday afternoon but caught a bad break when the Colorado Rockies were snowed out at home in their scheduled series finale against the Atlanta Braves.

So instead of seeing Rockies minor-leaguer Jeff Hoffman as an injury replacement for Tyler Anderson in the opener of a home four-game series Thursday night, the Giants will draw Rockies right-hander Jon Gray (0-2, 5.68).

The Giants will counter with righty Jeff Samardzija (0-0, 2.79).

The matchup of National League West rivals matches teams off to slow starts, with a 5.52 team ERA contributing big-time to the Rockies having lost nine of 12 to start the season, while a .206 cumulative team batting average has conspired to bring down the Giants in nine of their 13 games.

Frustrated after watching backup catcher Erik Kratz get tagged out standing up at home plate when a slide might have produced a go-ahead run in Wednesday's 3-1 loss, Giants manager Bruce Bochy remained optimistic afterward that his core hitters soon will get rolling.

"It's magnified early when guys aren't quite swinging like they normally do," the veteran manager noted to reporters after the Giants lost for the second time in three days to the San Diego Padres.

"You can look across baseball and see quite a few guys just aren't there yet, hitting like they would normally be hitting. You have to stay encouraged. Those numbers are going to get better. But it's going to have to happen pretty soon for us," Bochy said.

Samardzija has no wins to show for two decent, but not lengthy, starts to open the season. He's gone just 4-6 with a 4.00 ERA in 17 meetings, 13 as a starter, against the Rockies in his career, but the ERA is significantly better (3.02) when the matchups have been at home.

The 34-year-old has never allowed a home run to Rockies slugger Nolan Arenado, which is noteworthy being that the Rockies' chief power source has accumulated the second-most career homers (10) at San Francisco's Oracle Park among all Giants opponents.

Arenado nonetheless has a .394 career batting average against Samardzija in 36 career plate appearances.

Gray has never won in San Francisco, going 0-2 with a 5.48 ERA in five career visits. Overall, he is 0-2 with a 6.15 ERA in six career starts against the Giants.

Rockies manager Bud Black is happy to get last year's 12-game winner back on the hill after his club allowed 27 runs in its last three losses.

"We're going to get out of it," he assured reporters after Tuesday's 7-1 home loss to Atlanta. "We've had three bad ones. So all these guys, they do their thing and perform and stay in the rotation. It's going be 32, 33 starts. They've got 30 more."

The good news for the Giants is that while Gray has had more than his fair share of success against San Francisco's middle-of-the-lineup hitters, he's struggled against guys who figure to play complementary roles Thursday -- Pablo Sandoval (.667), Kevin Pillar (.333) and Yangervis Solarte (.333).

Pillar hit his second home run since joining the Giants last week in Wednesday's loss to the Padres.

--Field Level Media