After breaking jaw Rowand's back in action By Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin May 3, 2010     SAN FRANCISCO--Giants outfielder Aaron Rowand is a tough player with a broken jaw and he elected not to have the surgery you have to give Rowand credit for coming back like that. He didn't look bad he got a hit in his first game back and went 1-3 on Sunday and was out for 16 days. Rowand did look a little rusty but so did a lot of other Giants hitters when you consider the pitcher they were facing Rockies starter Jhoulys Chacin who is now 1-0 after throwing seven innings of shutout ball in the Giants 4-1 loss. Rowand is one tough player for coming back like that you have to admire what he's done under the circumstances. He's a gamer for doing that after getting hit in the jaw with a baseball and neglecting to do surgery and he plays the game at 100%. People can complain about his salary and so forth, but the guy comes to play everyday and you have to admire him even though he plays hurt. If you get your jaw broken and you go out there and give 100% it takes a lot of courage. He's not a team captain type, he's a quiet guy but he plays by example and players would have to look up to him and he comes out to play hard and I wonder if the average person can go out and do what he's doing with the injury that he has. The pitcher that hit Rowand, Los Angeles Dodger pitcher Vincente Padilla has pitched for a lot of teams he's a head hunter and he's got that reputation in MLB. The teams he's played for do not like him. We would suspect the Dodgers in general the players don't like him.Padilla has been known to be a head hunter so whatever Padilla says you have to take with a grain of salt in regards to this being an accident. So were surprised to even see Rowand in the lineup last Sunday because of what he went through and it takes guts to go back there particularly when Chacin threw a great game for the Rockies because he was throwing around 100 MPH or close to it. Rowand's way above average when it comes to handling pain and to go ahead and play. Most people would feel the way we do and have a lot of admiration for him. Giants series at home: Looking back on this past week the Giants have to be happy with the homestand, fortunately for the Giants they played the Phils last week and had some injuries and the Giants are banged up a little bit and that's what Giants manager Bruce Bochy said on the other hand the Rockies came in with their share of injuries. You look at Colorado, two of their starting pitchers who are out and they have a closer whose out, the rookies however look pretty good, they have a right fielder who is out, the Rocks are really banged up. They were happy that Chacin threw a great game avoiding a sweep on the road with the Giants and won on Sunday. Esmil Rogers pitched well for the Rockies on Saturday but got the curve ball up a couple of times in the second game the Giants won 6-1. Rogers went four innings, five hits, five runs. Chacin pitched great we were impress with his pitching on Sunday giving up only one hit in seven innings and he looked extremely well and a couple of the Giants players pointed out after the game Chacin's location of the ball was excellent for a young rookie. The Rockies are going to be a good team, the concern the Giants have when they play the Rockies they ran a good but injured team against the Giants. The Giants are going to have to work on holding the runners on because the Giants have a horrible record with 22 stolen bases and only four caught steals, that's not a very good stat. Regardless the Giants had a very good home stand the key now is what are they going to do in Florida and New York. The Giants so far have been playing well on the road. Ken Gimblin and Joe Cronin cover Giants baseball each week for Sportstalk Radio

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