The Colorado Rockies are in first place in the National League West, and after the weekend, there should be a large pile of thank you notes mailed back to 24 Willie Mays Plaza in San Francisco.
The upstart Rockies lead the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks by 1.0 game in the division, and they have the Giants’ struggles to thank for their current status as the front-runners.
On Saturday, the Rockies defeated the Giants 5-1 to clinch a four-game series victory and offer Bud Black’s squad an opportunity to sweep Bruce Bochy’s club. At this point, it would be a significant surprise if the Giants salvaged a game at Coors Field, considering Colorado now owns a franchise-best eight-game win streak against San Francisco.
Over the first three games of the weekend, the Giants have had no answer for Rockies’ bats that have pounded out 31 hits against three starting pitchers, and 25 runs in 27 innings of play. While the Giants put together valiant efforts at the plate on Thursday and Friday, their Saturday performance against Rockies’ rookie left-hander Kyle Freeland served as a classic example of what’s gone wrong this season.
A team that entered the weekend hitting under .225 with two outs went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base on Saturday, which is hard to do at Coors Field, even for a team hitting as poorly as the Giants.
On the other side of the diamond, Colorado executed brilliantly, notching nine of their first 10 hits of the game with two outs and finishing 6-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
While Giants’ right-hander Matt Cain was much better than he’s been on the road this season, Cain still made a pair of critical location mistakes that cost him an opportunity for a clean line.
In the second inning, Cain pitched to Rockies’ eight-hitter Tony Wolters with a base open, and instead of forcing Freeland to beat him in the next at-bat, Cain elevated a fastball that Wolters slammed into the right center field gap for an RBI single.
In the fifth inning, Cain retired the first two batters in order, but then allowed a line drive single to Rockies’ left fielder Ian Desmond. Instead of attacking right fielder Carlos Gonzalez, who entered the series 0-for-his-last-27 at the plate, Cain walked Gonzalez on five pitches.
Though Gonzalez was once a feared hitter, Cain never seemed to have trouble with him, as the left-hander was 8-for-54 against the Giants’ veteran entering play on Saturday.
After an ill-advised walk, shortstop Trevor Story stepped to the plate and mashed an RBI single off of another elevated fastball, giving the Rockies a 2-1 lead.
The Giants had a chance to even the score in the top half of the sixth inning, but it would require the type of clutch, two-out base hit that has seemingly eluded the club all season.
With the game potentially on the line, Bochy pinch hit for Cain, who had only thrown 83 pitches, in order to give his team a better chance of capitalizing with a runner in scoring position.
Bochy sent left-hander Brandon Belt to the plate with left fielder Austin Slater standing on second base, and Belt struck out swinging in what was largely a non-competitive at-bat.
The Giants’ first baseman is now 0-for-18 and hasn’t recorded a hit at Coors Field this weekend, as his season-long slump continues.
There are myriad examples you or I could pick to point out just how flawed the Giants are at this point in the season. But the best example is the gap in the standings, that grows wider each time San Francisco lines up against Colorado.
On Sunday, Bochy’s club will start the day a staggering 18.5 games out of first place, and unless Colorado native Ty Blach can neutralize a potent Rockies’ lineup, the Giants will likely drop another game back.
Sure, the gap between the Rockies and the Giants is tangible in the standings, but on the field, it’s looked even greater.