Rockies at Giants
The San Francisco Giants have lost six of their last eight contests to plummet toward the bottom of the National League West, with only the Colorado Rockies preventing them from residing in the basement. The two struggling rivals look to get back on track at the other's expense on Thursday when they open a four-game series in San Francisco.
Kevin Pillar continued his torrid play at the plate with a solo homer in the fourth inning on Wednesday afternoon, but the Giants (4-9) went silent from there as they dropped the rubber match of their three-game series with a 3-1 setback to San Diego. The 30-year-old Pillar, who was acquired from Toronto in a four-player deal last week, has two homers and nine RBIs over the last three days for the offensively challenged club. Injury-ravaged Colorado (3-9) had lost five in a row and nine of 10 before snow brought about the postponement of Wednesday's series finale against Atlanta. "Obviously we're banged up. We're being tested right now," shortstop Trevor Story said of a team that counts Daniel Murphy (broken finger), Ryan McMahon (strained elbow) and David Dahl (core injury) among the walking wounded. "We're veteran players, we've got to step up and bring those guys with us. These guys have a lot of talent, we just want them to play and do their thing out there and not worry about anything else."
TV: 9:45 p.m. ET, AT&T SportsNet-Rocky Mountain (Colorado), NBCS California (San Francisco)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Rockies RH Jon Gray (0-2, 5.68 ERA) vs. Giants RH Jeff Samardzija (0-0, 2.79)
Gray followed a strong season-opening start with a tough one on Saturday, as the 27-year-old allowed five runs on eight hits in six innings of a 7-2 setback versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gray was able to minimize the damage by inducing the Dodgers to ground into three double plays in the first three innings, but he was taken deep in his franchise-record 14th straight appearance. Gray, who is 0-2 with a 6.15 ERA in six career outings against San Francisco, has kept Buster Posey (2-for-9) and Joe Panik (2-for-9) in check while Brandon Crawford has gotten his licks in by going 4-for-11 with three RBIs.
Samardzija was in line for a loss in his last outing on Saturday after yielding three runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay, although his offense picked him up in the bottom of the frame. The 34-year-old owns a 4-6 mark with a 4.00 ERA in 17 career appearances (13 starts) against Colorado, with Nolan Arenado (13-for-33), Ian Desmond (10-for-27) and Charlie Blackmon (10-for-34) finding success versus Samardzija. San Francisco hasn't fared well in recent games started by Samardzija, posting a 3-13 mark in the last 16.
WALK-OFFS
1. Arenado, who has led Colorado in homers in each of the past four seasons, has yet to go deep in 2019.
2. San Francisco 1B Brandon Belt has answered a five-game hitting streak by going 1-for-11 with five strikeouts in his last four contests.
3. Desmond is 3-for-5 in his last two games after going 1-for-22 in his previous six.