The NL West race is starting to resemble a round-robin tournament with all four contenders, San Diego, San Francisco, Colorado and Los Angeles, seemingly all involved with series against one another. The Padres have had a stranglehold on the division for more than a month, but they have been slowly losing that grip.

The Dodgers made a flurry of trade-deadline moves to bolster their squad, but they have only a five-game losing streak to show for it.

With the division-leading Padres faltering and the fourth-place Dodgers fading away, the door is open for San Francisco or Colorado to make a run at the NL West crown. The teams meet in a critical series that is only a two-game set, but a sweep by either team will alter the landscape of the NL West race drastically.

The Giants (61-45) and Rockies (55-50) open this series in Coors Field Tuesday night with first pitch scheduled for 8:40 p.m. EST. 

San Francisco is coming off a huge three-game sweep over the rival Dodgers. The sweep propelled them to 16-4 over the course of their last 20 games. The Rockies are also fresh off a sweep after picking up three wins against the Cubs at home. They have won four consecutive games, but that does little to erase the damage done by the eight-game losing streak that preceded the sweep of the Cubs.

Pitching Matchup

Jonathan Sanchez (7-6, 3.54 ERA) vs. Aaron Cook (4-7, 5.08)
Cook is coming off his worst start of the season where he yielded five earned runs to the lowly Pirates and picked up the loss after lasting only 2 1/3 innings. With such a critical divisional game this sounds like a bad time for the Rockies to be sending Cook to the hill, but it could actually work in their favor. Cook has had three horrendous starts this season, where he got a quick hook. Both times he bounced back with wins, pitching a combined 16 innings while allowing three earned runs.

Against the Giants this year Cook is 1-1, pitching 13 innings but allowing eight earned runs. Sanchez fared much worse in his lone start against Colorado this season. On May 2 Sanchez was yanked after 4 2/3 innings against Colorado. He allowed three earned runs but was erratic in walking five. When he starts issuing free passes that is when Sanchez gets in trouble.

Giants vs. Rockies MLB Betting Odds
Colorado is a slight favorite at -130 with San Francisco listed at +110. The total is 9. Lines are courtesy of Sportsbook.com.

Trends
The Giants are 13-3 in their last 16 road games
The Giants are 21-6 in their last 27 games
The Rockies are 8-3 in their last 11 games after a win
The Rockies are 8-3 over Cooks last 11 starts at home
The ‘under’ is 8-3 in the 11 meetings between the Rockies and Giants

Giants vs. Rockies Picks and Predictions
Jim Tracy promised a different Colorado team when shortstop Troy Tulowitzki returned to the lineup and his team has delivered. Tulowitzki has knocked in seven runs in five games since returning, but his teammates have also be reenergized. Dexter Fowler and NL-Player of the Week Carlos Gonzalez have blown up over the last seven days and have the Rockies looking a lot like they did last season when they took the Wild Card race by storm late in the season.

Neither Cook nor Sanchez looks to have the ability to control this game and this likely will be a high-scoring affair with plenty of bullpen intervention. The Rockies have scored a combined 40 runs in their last four games while the Giants have scored 10. The Giants are hoping for a pitcher’s duel, but that does not look to be in the cards Tuesday night. At home with a vulnerable Sanchez on the mound, the red-hot Rockies have plenty of value at -130.

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