Only four teams in the NL have a record below 0.500: Fish at 26-31, Mets at 23-33, Giants at 22-34, and Rockies at 20-37. The Giants are in Denver, facing the Rockies for the first time this year. And yes, things are so horrible that the worst record in the NL is at stake this weekend. Logan Webb returns to pitch the first game, here are all the deets:
• Friday, 5:40, Logan Webb (2-4, 5.06) vs. RHP Michael Lorenzen (2-7, 7.21)
• Saturday, 6:10, Adrian Houser (2-4, 5.30) vs. TBD
• Sunday, 12:10, Robbie Ray (3-6, 4.60) vs. RHP Tanner Gordon (0-0, 5.85)
Jose Quintana (elbow) went on the 60-day IL a few days ago, putting a hole in their rotation. Gordon has appeared in 8 games this year, only starting once, for 32 total innings. Roster Resource thinks Ryan Feltner (1-1, 6.30) will return from the IL to take Saturday’s game.
The Rockies are managed by Warren Schaeffer, who was the interim after Bud Black was fired last year. The Rockies have a new POBO, Paul DePodesta and a new GM, Josh Byrnes. So, there’s a full reboot underway in Denver. Here are the active players, with RBI:
🏔 1B T. J. Rumfield (27), 2B Willi Castro (18), SS Ezequiel Tovar (16), 3B Kyle Karros (14)
🏔 RF Tyler Freeman (14), CF Jake McCarthy (19), LF Troy Johnston (23)
🏔 C Hunter Goodman (20, 12 HR), DH Sterlin Thompson (2)
🏔 bench: C Brett Sullivan, C Braxton Fulford, IF Edouard Julien, IF Chad Stevens
🏔 rotation: Lorenzen, Feltner?, Gordon, Kyle Freeland (1-6, 8.08), Tomoyuki Sugano (4-4, 4.01)
🏔 co-closers Antonio Senzatela and Juan Mejia, set up Juan Mejia
Their RBI leader is Mickey Moniak, 28 from 12 homers, but he is on the IL with an ankle owie.
No former Giants are on this team. However, they have just signed John Brebbia to a minor league contract, and with a very weak bullpen, he’s got a reasonable shot at a call up sometime.
You can point at a few good things from the Snakes series, such as Willy Adames showing signs of hitting, Casey Schmitt looking respectable in the outfield, and especially the 19 pitch 8th and 9th inning in the middle game from Caleb Kilian. The return of Kilian is a good story. He is now the closer in all but name, and came very close to being this weekend’s Picture of the Post. But in view of the weak homestand, maybe just a drone shot of the stadium is appropriate?
