San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: Quick Sweep of Rockies
The San Francisco Giants completed a quick two-game series against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday, sweeping both games and running their winning streak to three, their longest streak of the second half. Here’s 3 Up, 3 Down from the series.
3 UP
1 – Starting Strong
The Giants threw Johnny Cueto and Matt Moore against Colorado, and both guys came through with strong starts. The crafty Cueto opened the series on Tuesday, and put together what has to be seen as his best start since coming back from the disabled list.
He fought hard, working through traffic and racking up 50 pitches across the first two innings. Despite the high pitch count, Cueto would go 6.2 innings while allowing just two runs, and walked off the mound to a standing ovation with his team holding on to a 3-2 lead. He didn’t factor into the decision, but set the tone for the team’s ninth-inning walkoff win.
Moore took the mound on Wednesday for his first start since it was announced that the team would pick up his option, and put together another strong outing. He allowed six hits (all singles) and a pair of walk in six-plus innings of work, and the bullpen helped him keep a shutout alive by working through a jam in the seventh. For Moore, it was another encouraging outing in what has turned into a great stretch. In his last eight appearances, Moore owns a 3.25 ERA and 1.218 WHIP in 44.1 innings, a good sign for him heading into 2018.
2 – Hibernating Panda Wakes Up
More from Golden Gate Sports
- Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
- 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
- Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
- 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
- 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve
After going through one of the most dismal stretch in Giants’ franchise history, Pablo Sandoval and his bats have woken up. It started on Sunday, when he went 2-3 with his first right-handed hitting home run since 2014 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, and continued against the Rockies.
On Tuesday, he picked up three hits, including an RBI single that opened the scoring for the Giants in the fourth inning. He beat out an infield single in the ninth, starting the rally that led to Hunter Pence‘s walk-off sac fly. Wednesday saw Sandoval collect two more hits, a pair of doubles, to continue his miniature hot streak.
Sandoval has gone 7-11 in his past three games, and raised his average with San Francisco back into the .200’s. Before this stretch, Sandoval had seven hits in his previous 21 games combined.
3 – Arenad-oh
Nolan Arenado has always been a Giant killer, but that wasn’t the case in this series. The perennial MVP candidate had no hits in four at-bats in back-to-back games, marking the first time in his major league career that he went an entire series against the Giants without picking up a hit. He did fly out to the warning track on Tuesday, but AT&T Park is a far cry for the friendly confines of Coors Field.