After last night's ninth-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants, the Colorado Rockies will look to avoid losing a third straight game this season, which would be a season-high for the team. They have lost back-to-back games three times after last night,
The first time the Rockies lost back-to-back games in 2011 came on April 18-19 when they faced these Giants in Coors Field. The Rockies went several innings without getting a hit against both Tim Lincecum and Jonathan Sanchez in the first two games. But they exploded for 10 runs in the third and final game of that series.
Rockies starter for Saturday night, Clayton Mortensen, pitched in that April 18 loss in relief of Esmil Rogers. Mortensen entered the game in the fourth inning after Rogers allowed eight runs in the first three frames. Mortensen held the Giants to just two hits and zero runs over the remaining six innings of the game. In three minor league starts, Mortensen has allowed 14 runs in 8.2 innings.
Mortensen will face 21-year-old left-hander Madison Bumgarner. He currently holds an 0-5 record with a 4.75 ERA, but he's not as bad as that indicates. His 3.47 FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) shows he's doing all right with what he is directly responsible for, but he's seen regression in some of those areas. He's allowing 10.1 hits per nine innings (up one-half of a percentage point from 2010) and 3.6 walks over nine as well (up from 2.1 in 2010). In three career starts against the Rockies, Bumgarner is 0-2 with a 4.24 ERA and a 1.647 WHIP (for the small sample size that it is).
First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. MT. Check in with ROOT Sports to see how the Rockies fare on Saturday evening.