The San Francisco Giants are probably fine with heading out of town for a few days.
The Giants wrapped up a 2-4 homestand with a loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday in a disappointing finish to a week at home. Now San Francisco visits the Colorado Rockies for three games beginning Tuesday night.
The Giants will open the series by sending right-hander John Brebbia (2-0, 3.80 ERA) to the mound against Rockies right-hander Dinelson Lamet (1-2, 13.17).
Brebbia will make just his fifth start of the season and fourth career start against the Rockies. He has appeared in 21 games against them, going 1-0 with a 2.20 ERA.
Brebbia will act more like an opener than a starter Tuesday night. He has pitched in 25 games this year, with 21 as a reliever, and has not pitched more than two innings in any appearance. His spot start comes with starters Ross Stripling (back) and Alex Wood (back) on the injured list.
San Francisco is hoping to get two players back from the injured list before Tuesday night’s game. Outfielder Joc Pederson (right hand bruise) and infielder Thairo Estrada (left wrist sprain) are eligible to come off the IL and are expected to be activated.
Tuesday begins a tough stretch for the Giants, who will play 12 games in 13 days across four cities. Having already played two games against San Diego in Mexico City in April, the club is accustomed to travel.
“Considering what we dealt with earlier in the season, it doesn’t seem like it should be overwhelming or anything more than challenging,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “It’ll definitely be challenging, but I don’t see it as debilitating in any way.”
The Rockies return home after winning two of three games at Kansas City over the weekend, which helped salvage the end of their road trip. They lost four games at Arizona to begin the week and were poised to sweep the Royals but lacked offense in Sunday’s 2-0 loss.
Colorado has also dealt with injuries to its rotation, losing German Marquez, Antonio Senzatela and Ryan Feltner, while forcing manager Bud Black to get creative with his staff. That includes Lamet moving into the rotation, which he did Wednesday at Arizona.
Lamet needed 71 pitches to get through three innings in a 6-0 loss to the Diamondbacks but came away encouraged with some aspects of his outing.
“I didn’t throw as many innings as I would have liked or get to the goal I wanted,” Lament said. “But the positive is I did execute pitches I wanted and didn’t walk anybody.”
Lamet, who is the 11th pitcher to start a game for the Rockies this season, isn’t new to the role. He made 56 starts for the Padres over 4 1/2 seasons and was fourth in the National League Cy Young voting in the shortened 2020 season.
Four of those starts as a member of the Padres came against the Giants when he went 1-1 with a 5.22 ERA in 12 appearances.
–Field Level Media