The San Francisco Giants shoot for a much-needed three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies this afternoon at Coors Field.
It appears the Giants have righted themselves after a brief hiccup and have put up plenty of runs in this series so far. After a 16-4 outburst in Friday's series opener, the Giants posted an 11-6 triumph last night.
Madison Bumgarner was able to record his 12th win of the season by striking out seven batters and allowing one run in six innings.
"I kept the fastball down and used the cutter a lot," Bumgarner said. "I didn't really throw much else."
Buster Posey homered for a third straight game and finished with three RBI, while Melky Cabrera and Angel Pagan also went deep. Pagan finished 4-for-6 with three RBI and Marco Scutaro added three hits for the NL West-leading Giants, who have won three of five since a five-game slide.
San Francisco is still just one-half game ahead of Los Angeles in the division and three games in front of Arizona. The club will visit St. Louis for four games after this series in Colorado.
Tim Lincecum draws the start for the Giants Sunday and he has won two of his last three starts. In Tuesday's 4-1 win over the New York Mets, Lincecum fanned seven batters over seven innings of one-run ball to improve to 5-11 in 22 starts with a 5.62 earned run average.
The right-hander is only 2-6 in 11 road starts this season and 8-6 with a 3.77 ERA in 19 career starts against Colorado.
Colorado has dropped 13 of its last 16 games and fell to 1-7 on a nine-game homestand with last night's loss.
Jeff Francis was dealt the loss for allowing six runs and nine hits in just 3 2/3 innings and Edgmer Escalona gave up four runs in relief.
Josh Rutledge hit a solo homer and Matt McBride, who was called up earlier Saturday, went 2-for-4 with an RBI double for the Rockies.
"We're not disappointed with six runs and 14 hits and a lot of young kids out there on the field," Colorado manager Jim Tracy said of his team.
The Rockies will hit the road after today's game to take on Los Angeles and San Francisco, and are expected to send Tyler Chatwood to the mound Sunday. Chatwood was scratched from his start for Double-A Tulsa on Saturday night and went 1-1 with a 3.00 earned run average in four starts for the club.
Chatwood also posted an 0-2 mark in nine starts at the Triple-A level and is 1-1 with a 7.62 ERA in seven relief appearances this season for the Rockies. The right-hander has made one career relief appearance against the Giants, tossing three innings of one-run ball.
The Giants have taken five of seven meetings with the Rockies this season and went 13-5 in this series a year ago.
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