Rockies continue late push versus Giants

Baseball Betting Lines

08/26/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Once again, the Colorado Rockies are making a belated playoff push.

The defending National League champions take aim at a fourth consecutive victory in tonight's second test of a three-game series with the host San Francisco Giants from AT&T Park.

Colorado, which ripped off 14 victories in the final 15 regular-season games to make the 2007 postseason, improved to 8-2 over its last 10 contests with Monday's 4-2 decision over the Giants. The Rockies have also won seven of their eight most recent road games following last night's triumph.

At 62-71, Colorado remains a longshot to come out on top of the soft NL West, but the club is just seven games behind division leader Arizona at the moment.

Jeff Francis led the way for the Rockies on Monday with seven strong innings, while former Giant Yorvit Torrealba belted a two-run homer to pace the Colorado offense.

Francis (4-8) yielded two runs on seven hits to earn his first win since June 18. The left-hander was making only his fourth start since missing more than six weeks due to shoulder inflammation.

Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki finished 2-for-3 in the win and snapped a 2-2 tie with an RBI triple in the fourth inning.

San Francisco, which had a season-best five-game win streak halted, received three hits from Randy Winn and a 2-for-4 performance from Fred Lewis that included an RBI triple.

Giants starter Matt Cain (8-10) surrendered three runs on six hits and four walks over the first six innings to record the loss.

San Francisco will attempt to rebound tonight when it takes its swings against Jorge De La Rosa, who has pitched well for the Rockies in August. The left- hander has put together two straight solid starts and is 1-1 with a 2.42 earned run average in five appearances (3 starts) this month.

In his last time out, De La Rosa held the Dodgers to two runs -- one earned -- and four hits over six quality innings, although he was hung with a loss in his team's 3-1 setback on Thursday. Prior to that outing, he defeated Washington with six innings of three-run ball on the road on August 15.

Although he's fared well in away games as of late, De La Rosa is still just 2-6 with a 6.55 ERA in 11 games (9 starts) in visiting parks this season.

The 27-year-old's only career start against the Giants came on May 19, with De La Rosa getting a no-decision after allowing three runs (2 earned) in 5 1/3 innings. He's also made three previous relief appearances versus San Francisco and has no record and a 7.71 ERA lifetime against the Giants.

San Francisco will hand the ball to Matt Palmer for the rookie's third career major league start. The 29-year-old made his first-ever appearance at AT&T Park came this past Thursday, with Palmer holding Florida to two runs over six encouraging innings. He left the contest with a 3-2 lead that the Giants' bullpen gave up later on.

That start was a significant upgrade from his major league debut, when the right-hander was rocked for six runs and seven hits while walking four over 2 1/3 innings in an August 16 loss at Atlanta.

These NL West inhabitants have split 10 meetings in this year's season series.