MLB Betting Picks: San Francisco Giants at Colorado Rockies

Added on Apr 20, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

MLB

The San Francisco Giants will go for the sweep on Wednesday as they face the Colorado Rockies in the finale of a three game set. The Giants have now pulled within two games of the NL West leading Rockies and can pare that margin to a single game with a victory here.

San Francisco Giants (Cain) at Colorado Rockies (De La Rosa)
April 20, 2011 12:10 PM Pacific

We had a losing play on the Rockies in Game 1 of this series and at the time we said we’d likely use Colorado in every game of the three game set. Guess again. We’re going the other way here despite the Rockies legacy of dominant play at Coors Field. We’re also mindful of the Rockies solid performance in day games this season (6-1) but the Giants are clicking on all cylinders now. Their pitching has been excellent all year and now their bats are heating up as well. San Francisco has outscored the Rockies 14-4 in the first two games but despite that onslaught are a road underdog in this matchup.

The Rockies will go with lefthander Jorge De La Rosa who’s pitched well this season–he’s got a 3.18 ERA and Colorado has won two of his three starts. He’ll be opposed by arguably the most underrated member of the Giants’ fearsome starting rotation in righthander Matt Cain. Cain’s got an excellent 1.42 ERA overall and a 0.75 ERA in two road starts–all three of his assignments this year have been San Francisco wins.

Both pitchers have been very good in head to head play–Cain is 11-6 against Colorado with a 2.94 ERA lifetime while De La Rosa is 6-1 against the Giants with a 2.26 ERA. At this point, however, we’d rather be on the Giants’ freight train–and particularly getting them as a small underdog–than trying to get in front of it with a play on the hometown Rockies. We generally like this Rockies team and will look to use them again as the season progresses but we just think that the Giants–winners of 9 of their last 12 games–are the more complete team at this point. This may be a closer game than the first two of the series but we look for San Fran to post another win.

Bet San Francisco Giants (Cain) +110 over Colorado Rockies (De La Rosa)