Giants vs Rockies Preview: Will Patrick Bailey’s Return Help Giants In Playoff Push?

The San Francisco Giants haven’t played their best baseball over the last few weeks. But they’re still competing for an NL Wild Card spot.

The Giants have no chance of earning the NL West. But they’re competing against the Phillies, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Reds, and Marlins for three NL Wild Card spots.

The Giants must get on a streak with six teams in the race. All other teams above have played better baseball over the last ten days.

San Francisco will take on a Colorado Rockies team that will ultimately lose 100+ games this season. San Francisco can’t ruin this opportunity against the Rockies. With the season ending in early October, the Giants are running out of time to earn that NL Wild Card spot.

Can the Giants at least take three of four against the Rockies in this four-game weekend series?

Here’s our Giants vs Rockies preview for this critical series against the Rockies.

Colorado’s Strikeout Rate is Alarming

The Colorado Rockies will be sent home packing in a few weeks.

For a team that plays in Coors Field, it’s embarrassing that the entire roster continues to strike out at a ridiculous pace.

The Rockies are third in the MLB strikeout rate, going down 25.4% of the time. That means the Rockies essentially have a player walk back to the dugout once every four at-bats.

Nolan Jones has struck out 32.9% of the time against righties and 30.8% against lefties. Elehuris Montero has struck out 34.5% of the time against righties while striking out 39.1% against lefties.

Even Colorado’s most prized hitter, Ryan McMahon, has struck out 32.4% of the time against lefties and 30% against righties.

The list goes on. Ezequiel Tovar, Brendan Rodgers, Brenton Doyle, Austin Wynns, Harold Castro, Alen Trejo, Michael Toglia, Brian Serven, Sean Bouchard, and Hunter Goodman all have high strikeout numbers against lefties and righties.

It’s absolutely absurd. What were the Rockies thinking when building this roster?

The Rockies play in Coors Field, where the baseball loses 8% of its speed. Batters can typically adjust quickly because the ball has less break on each pitch.

But that is not true for the home team! The Rockies continue to flail at pitches. They don’t even give themselves a chance with balls in play.

We won’t see the Rockies in the baseball playoffs anytime soon.

The Return of Patrick Bailey!

The Giants are almost entirely healthy again.

Patrick Bailey returned to the Giants’ lineup on Wednesday after being held out with a concussion.

When talking to the Mercury News, catching coach Craig Albernaz said, “It’s Opening Day 2.0 for him.”

Bailey has hit a .248 average this season. He’s smacked seven home runs and 45 RBIs and has an OPS near .700.

Bailey has hit a .216 ISO and wOBA of .398 against 96 lefties this season. However, he’s struggled more against righties, hitting a .111 ISO and wOBA of .266. But he’s a terrific catcher who instills confidence in San Francisco’s starting rotation.

Manager Gabe Kepler believes that Bailey will play most of the games down the stretch as the Giants chance an NL Wild Card spot.

Bailey has already played a lot of games between the minors and MLB. He’s looking at these seven days away from the game with a silver lining. The little breakaway could help him find his offensive firepower again. He was starting to fatigue.

After a seven-day reset, Bailey could put together a massive final few weeks to help the Giants in a playoff push.

Early Odds:RL San Francisco -1.5 (-150), ML San Francisco -230, O/U 10.5 +100/-120

Logan Webb will get the start for the Giants in Game 1 of the Giants vs Rockies preview. Webb has only struck out 16.9% of batters in the last month. However, he still held teams to a .148 ISO and wOBA of .300, earning over 63% of ground balls.

Webb has also allowed just 9.5% of fly balls in the last 30 days.

Webb will face Chase Anderson of the Rockies. Anderson has allowed a .367 ISO and wOBA of .479 to his last 35 batters. He’s also allowed a .242 ISO and wOBA of .392 to 303 batters this season. He’s terrible against both sides of the plate and has earned under 17% of strikeouts this season.

Meanwhile, the Giants have just four batters hitting right-handed pitching with an above-average ISO and wOBA. That means the other five batters have been awful against right-handed pitching. The bottom portion of the order has a low ISO and wOBA against righties, but they’ve also struck out at a very high rate.

On the other hand, the Rockies have hit a below .300 wOBA against righties in the last 30 days. They’ve also struck out nearly 25% of the time with their projected lineup against righties.

Therefore, our MLB expert picks will include the Giants on the run line. San Francisco is -230 on the moneyline and -150 at -1.5. The total for this game is 10.5, with the Under at -120. We like the Giants to earn a massive win against the Rockies in this game.

Alex Wood will likely get the call for Game 2 of the series. Wood is a left-handed pitcher, earning 13.5% of strikeouts in the last 30 days. However, over the previous month, he’s held teams to a .087 ISO and a wOBA of .318. Wood has only thrown 38.17 pitches per game over the last month. Therefore, this game could be more of a bullpen game. Nevertheless, Wood figures to pitch in a portion of this game.

Wood would face Peter Lambert of the Rockies. Lambert is a righty who has kept his walks down. However, he’s allowed a .270 ISO and wOBA of .374 to his last 118 batters.

However, the Rockies have hit nearly a .250 ISO and a wOBA of above .390 with their projected lineup over the last month against lefties. The Rockies likely won’t face Wood multiple times through the order, but they could take advantage when given the opportunity.

Our MLB predictions have the Over as the play in this game.

Alex Cobb will get the start in the third matchup of our Giants vs Rockies preview. Like the other San Francisco starters, Cobb has struggled to earn a high rate of strikeouts. However, he’s limited walks very well and has kept his wOBA down to .289 over the last 30 days.

Cobb has induced over 60% of ground balls and limited fly balls below 16% against his last 113 batters. He’s also kept his line drives below 21% in the previous 30 days.

Cobb will face Kyle Freeland of the Rockies, who has allowed a .240 ISO and wOBA of .397 against his last 105 righties. Freeland, a lefty, typically faces mainly righties in lineups. The Giants love to play the analytics game and should have plenty of righties in the lineup against Freeland.

San Francisco has seen a lot of power out of Wilmer Flores, Mitch Haniger, Luis Matos, Patrick Bailey, and J.D. Davis against lefties in the last month. Strikeouts are typically high for this bunch, but Freeland doesn’t earn high strikeout rates. He’s struck out just 12.8% of batters in the last month.

We’d go with the Giants in Game 3.

Sean Manaea returned to the starting rotation last week, which paid off. He’ll likely get the start on Sunday for the Giants as San Francisco looks to incorporate him back into the starting rotation for good.

Manaea has allowed a .250 ISO and wOBA of .366 to his last 71 batters. However, he’s only allowed two runs in his last 8.2 innings pitched. He’s improving enough but still needs to be more consistent.

The lefty will go up against Chris Flexen, a right-handed pitcher just trying to stay in the league. Flexen has allowed a .240 ISO and wOBA of .359 to his last 107 batters. He’s much worse against righties than lefties, even as a right-handed pitcher.

The Giants will take notice and have some power-hitting righties in the lineup.

We don’t think Manaea is ready for a more significant role with the Giants just yet. But he’ll be good enough against Flexen. The Giants should at least win three games in this weekend’s series against the Rockies.

For MLB betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.

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