Photo Giants hope to keep winning feeling going vs. Rockies

By Jeremy Harness

August 3, 2006
San Francisco Giants' Moises Alou is greeted by teammates in the dugout after hitting a home run off Washington Nationals reliever Ryan Wagner during the seventh inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Wednesday Aug. 2, 2006. At right is Moise's father, manager Felipe Alou. Alou homered, hit a two-run double, and singled in a run to help the Giants snap a nine-game losing streak in beating the Nationals 8-6. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
 



Now that the Giants actually scratched out a win against Washington on Wednesday, the Giants will hope to make it a winning streak when they host the Colorado Rockies in a three-game series which starts Friday night at AT&T Park.

As it stands right now, the Giants are in last place in the National League West, but they are only four games behind the first-place San Diego Padres, which is a minor miracle. Considering the fact that the Giants had lost nine straight games prior to sneaking a win away from the Nationals on Wednesday.

Omar Vizquel leads the Giants with a respectable .307 batting average and had four RBI last week. Ray Durham, who has been the Giants hottest hitter for quite some time now, and Moises Alou also drove in four runs last week.

Meanwhile, left-handed reliever Mike Stanton has been solid since coming to San Francisco in a trade from the Nationals. In four games, he has pitched a total of two innings and has given up only one hit and recorded the save in Wednesday’s victory.

The Rockies (52-55), meanwhile, are in fourth place in the division behind the Padres, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively. However, they have won five of their last seven games, including recently taking three games of a four-game series with the Padres.

Left fielder Matt Holliday currently leads the team in several categories, including a .325 batting average, 20 home runs and 132 hits. Third baseman Garrett Atkins is not to far behind with a .318 average through Thursday and has 70 RBI and 15 home runs.

Since coming off the disabled list at mid-season, former Giants catcher Yorvit Torrealba hasn’t done to shabby, either. He has hit .250 this season with four home runs and has driven in 29 runs in 38 games while taking over as the team’s starting catcher.

Even more, the Rockies will have their ace starter, Jeff Francis (8-9, 3.63 ERA) going in the Friday series opener against Matt Morris (8-8, 4.61 ERA).

The following day, Colorado’s other budding young pitcher, Jason Jennings (7-9, 3.58 ERA), will head up against the Giants’ Noah Lowry (5-7, 4.50 ERA). In the series finale on Sunday afternoon, the Giants’ young right-hander, Matt Cain, will take the mound against Colorado’s Aaron Cook.

 

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