The San Francisco Giants did it again to the Colorado Rockies, this time beating them, 6-3, on Tuesday night. Jonathan Sanchez (2-1) provided an outstanding start for the Giants, keeping the Rockies down for 6 1/3 innings. He struck out four, his lowest total of the season so far, and walked four.
But it is Sanchez's heralded counterpart, Ubaldo Jimenez (0-1), who will be dissected for his performance on Tuesday night. In the first inning, he allowed four runs on a Buster Posey RBI single and a Pablo Sandoval three-run home run, needing 41 pitches to do it. But over the next four innings, Jimenez used 51 pitches and kept the Giants to zero runs on two hits. Jimenez's velocity was down during the game, but there was a 96 m.p.h fastball toward the end of his start. His final line was five innings pitched with four runs allowed on six hits and two walks. He struck out six batters.
Offensively for the Rockies, Dexter Fowler had a double off of Sanchez to start the bottom of the first, but with the way Nate Schierholtz played it, an error was possible but not given. After that, the Rockies weren't able to do anything against Sanchez until the fifth inning. Sanchez walked Ty Wigginton and then went to a full count on Chris Iannetta. On ball four, catcher Buster Posey made a throw to second base, which Freddy Sanchez didn't get. Wigginton moved to third base. Seth Smith then hit a sacrifice fly to put the Rockies on the board for their first run.
Sanchez left in the bottom of the seventh with one out after he walked Jose Lopez and then surrendered a single to Ty Wigginton. With Ramon Ramirez pitching, Fowler came through with a hard double to score both runners, putting the score at 6-3 (Franklin Morales had given up a two-run home run to Aubrey Huff in the top half of the inning). With Jonathan Herrera and Fowler in scoring position, Ryan Spilborghs struck out to end the inning.
The Rockies (12-5) are on their first losing streak of the season and have dropped their first series of the season. They will complete this set with the Giants on Wednesday afternoon at 1:10 p.m. MT. Jorge De La Rosa pitches against Matt Cain.