Colorado Rockies: Five things to pay attention to in the Giants series

The Colorado Rockies will start their first road trip of the season today as they start their seven-day, six-game road trip against the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.

To start, the Rockies will face the Giants so here are five things to pay attention to in the series.

Chi Chi Gonzalez will get his first start of 2021

The Rockies did not need a fifth starter until this season and Rockies manager Bud Black has gone with Chi Chi Gonzalez.

Gonzalez has already made two relief appearances for the Rockies and he has had mixed results thus far. In five innings, he has an ERA of 5.40. His first appearance against the Dodgers on Opening Day was the shaky one as he went two innings, allowing five hits and three runs but in the final game of the Dodgers series, he went three innings without allowing a hit, walking two and striking out two.

Both teams have their hottest bat out of the lineup

Chris Owings was the Rockies hottest hitter to start the season but he is still listed as day-to-day for the Rockies with his hamstring injury and the Giants have the same problem.

Evan Longoria will at least be out of Friday’s starting lineup as he has been suffering from some side effects with the COVID-19 vaccine.

In 25 plate appearances in 2021, Longoria has three home runs and five RBI and he is hitting .318/.400/.773 but at least for Friday, he looks like he will be out of action too.

The Rockies will avoid the Giants hottest starting pitcher

The Giants have had an odd schedule to start the season, including a Sunday off-day so their starting rotation is a bit out of whack. Outside of Friday, they haven’t even officially announced their starters for the rest of the series.

However, they will avoid facing Kevin Gausman, who pitched on Wednesday before the Giants had their second off-day on Thursday. Gausman, the Denver native who graduated from Grandview High School in Aurora, leads the NL in innings pitched (13 2/3 IP) in two starts. He has an ERA of 1.32. In that span, he has only walked three batters and he has struck out 11.

So the Rockies will catch a break there.

An old friend will be closing games for them

The Giants closer is former Rockies reliever Jake McGee.

McGee, 34, pitched in the Dodgers bullpen and pitched well (2.66 ERA, 1.67 FIP in 24 games) so, this offseason, the Giants signed him to become their closer.

Thus far, he has continued the success he had for the World Champs as in 2021, he leads the NL in appearances (4) and he already has two saves. In four innings, he has allowed two baserunners (one on a walk and one on a hit batsman). No hits allowed and he has struck out five.

The Rockies would have loved to have that in 2018 and/or 2019 when he combined to have a 5.54 ERA in the two seasons but he struggled at Coors Field (and going between altitude and sea level) at the end of his Rockies tenure, like many pitchers have.

Now that he doesn’t have to do that often, he looks like a much better pitcher.