The Giants were shut out at Coors Field Monday by mediocre veteran Jorge De La Rosa, and they scored four runs in two games with human punching bag Livan Hernandez on the mound. What’s the over/under on hits and runs against Rockies ace Aaron Cook today?
Before you answer that, let’s look at some numbers. Cook is generally much better against the Giants than the rest of the league. For his career, batters have a .346 OBP / .422 SLG against him for an OPS of .765. The current Giants roster has a collective .337 / .365 / .702 against him.
But he’s had an odd year against S.F. so far. Three starts, and in each he’s gone 7 innings with 9, 10 and 10 hits allowed and a total of ten runs (seven earned). He’s an extreme sinkerballer, and he’s got it on auto-pilot recently. Over his last four starts his ground ball/fly ball ratio is 51 to 9.
So the Giants best chance is to rev up what Bruce Bochy calls their “ground attack,” and for Winn, Burriss, Velez et al to beat out a few key infield hits or hope a few more grounders than usual find holes.
On the flip side, Barry Zito has been one lucky lefty at Coors Field. His career ERA there is 3.32, but look at the numbers and you wonder how: 19 IP, 27 baserunners, 3 home runs. He’s probably gotten a few double plays at just the right time. But fly-ball pitchers with more walks than strikeouts shouldn’t expect to stay lucky long-term at altitude.
