DENVER — Let's take a tour around the NL West in this week's First Pitch, with three things I heard from the Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants.
With the Giants and Padres coming to Coors Field this week to meet the Rockies (and heading out of the Mile High City with a collective 5-1 record), it was a chance to not only get a pulse on what's happening with two teams trying to catch the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers, but also get a feel for their confidence levels in doing so.
Make no mistake, inside both clubhouses, it was very obvious that both the Giants and Padres feel they have plenty of season left to climb up the division ladders and make a postseason run.
MLB Rumors: San Francisco Giants finally healthy and feeling confident
Entering Monday, the Giants sit in third place in the division with a 33-32 record. They're just 5-5 in their last 10 games, but it's clear San Francisco feels like they're in a better spot than they were 10 games ago. With Joc Pederson and Thairo Estrada both off the injured list and starting pitcher Alex Wood likely to rejoin the team prior to its rivalry series with the Dodgers this weekend, there is hope for the Giants to put together a strong stretch heading into July.
"Our whole offense, one through nine, just the whole year, I know we probably haven't been putting up the runs we want to put up every game but we've put together quality at-bats every night," said starting pitcher Alex Cobb, who went 5.0 innings in Thursday's 6-4 win at Coors Field. "You know if you keep doing that, the runs are going to start coming and the hits are going to start falling. I think you're just seeing that right now."
Evidence of that came through on Sunday when both Pederson and Estrada hit a pair of home runs in a 13-3 home win over the Chicago Cubs. It marked just the third time the Giants have had two players with multiple home runs in the same game at Oracle Park and the first since 2005.
Can the Giants piece something together? There's plenty of confidence they can, especially after a sweep in Colorado that I detailed in my Giants notebook earlier this week.
San Diego Padres: Keep an eye on Ryan Weathers
After the Giants left Denver, the Padres came to town looking to find some momentum in what has been a very disappointing and uneven season. San Diego won the first two games of the series, helping the Padres piece together three consecutive victories for the first time since April 29-May 1.
Helping the Padres get the 3-2 win on Saturday was starting pitcher Ryan Weathers, who has bounced between the rotation and bullpen, as well as Triple-A El Paso and San Diego already this season. Weathers pitched just 3.0 innings in his start on Saturday in Denver but looked sharp, scattering three hits and allowing just one run while striking out two.
Weathers is in line to get the start at home on Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays, and Padres manager Bob Melvin believes that the 23-year-old southpaw will be an important piece for San Diego moving forward.
"After a little bit of as tough spot, we want to get him going," Melvin said, referring to the 7.79 ERA Weathers had put up through his last 17.1 innings pitched. "He's a guy who is going to be a key guy for us. We wanted to shorten it (his outing) a little bit and let him pitch well and go after it as hard as he can for not as long. I think it ended up being a good thing for him, and he looked better today."
Watch what Weathers does on Friday against Tampa Bay and if he is used in shorter stints on the mound by Melvin in an effort to harness his potential. Could Weathers be part of bullpen days moving forward? We'll see.
MLB news: Colorado Rockies find hope in the pouring rain
The only win produced by the Rockies during the six-game homestand at Coors came with some drama and a lot of water on Sunday afternoon.
Rain began to fall in downtown Denver with the Padres and Rockies locked in a 3-3 tie heading into the ninth inning. The rain only intensified in the top of the ninth when Ha-Seong Kim scored on a wild pitch to give the Padres a 4-3 edge. As the Rockies prepared to come to bat in the bottom of the inning, the Coors Field grounds crew took the cover off the tarp, indicating there could be a stoppage coming.
Still, Colorado batted in the bottom of the ninth. With conditions deteriorating quickly, Ryan McMahon played hero in a scene straight out of a movie.
The ball traveled 442 feet in the pouring rain and, not long after McMahon crossed the plate, the tarp came on the field. After an 85-minute rain delay, the bottom of the ninth continued and Nolan Jones hit a 472-foot home run to give the Rockies the 5-4 victory.
"It was crazy. I'm not going to lie, I didn't see the ball very well those first couple of pitches, but I did the third time," McMahon said. "It was coming down pretty good. I don't think I've been out there when it's rained that hard before."