SAN FRANCISCO — ler against the Colorado Rockies for the second straight September when the National League West clubs open a three-game series on Friday night.Giants right-hander Chris Stratton (9-9 http://www.dodgersfanproshop.com/authentic-max-muncy-jersey , 4.99 ERA), bombed in back-to-back starts against the Rockies earlier this season, and Rockies left-hander Tyler Anderson (6-8, 4.89), winless in his last 11 starts, draw the starting assignments in the opener.The Rockies (81-65) begin a nine-game trip in first place in the NL West, having moved a healthy 4 1/2 games up on third-place Arizona (77-70) with a 10-3 shellacking of the Diamondbacks Thursday at Colorado to complete a 3-1 series win.Article continues below ...The Los Angeles Dodgers (80-67) are in second place, 1 1/2 games behind the Rockies.The Rockies will visit Los Angeles and Arizona for three games apiece next week to complete its road — and NL West — schedule. Colorado finishes the season at home against Philadelphia and Washington.The Rockies found themselves battling the Diamondbacks, Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers in mid-September last season when they went into San Francisco and lost two straight to a Giants team well out of contention.Colorado then had to scramble just to claim the second wild-card spot in the NL by one game.This year’s San Francisco club finds itself in the same situation Chris Taylor Jersey , having lost a West Coast era-record 11 straight.Stratton has started two of those games and pitched pretty well in 4-1 and 4-3 losses to the New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers, respectably. He allowed just seven hits in 11 innings in those games.That was a marked improvement over the 13 runs and 19 hits he gave up in 9-8 and 8-1 losses in a home-and-home sequence with the Rockies bridging June and July. Nolan Arenado homered in both of the games. The star third baseman hasn’t been the only Colorado player who has rocked the 28-year-old Stratton in the past. Ian Desmond (.625), Trevor Story (.556), Charlie Blackmon (.500), DJ LeMahieu (.500) and Gerardo Parra (.500) all have .500 or better career batting averages against Stratton.He has gone 1-1 with a 7.89 ERA in five games, including four starts, in his career against Colorado.Anderson will face a Giants team that has hit even worse than he has pitched of late.The 28-year-old hasn’t won since July 4 and now leads the NL in home runs allowed with 29.He was taken deep by the Giants’ Gorkys Hernandez in a 9-8 Rockies home win on Sept. 3. Anderson did not get the win, pulled after 5 1/3 innings having allowed three runs and six hits.Anderson has made six starts in his career against the Giants and went 1-2 with a 4.25 ERA.Hernandez has two career homers against him in 10 career at-bats.The Giants enter the series having scored one run in five straight home games. They’ve totaled just nine home runs (none in the last three outings) during their 0-for-September run of 11 games. MIAMI (AP) — The outfield grass at Marlins Park was a worn-out mess on Saturday, with those who arrived for the team’s annual FanFest being greeted by signs reminding them that the turf will be replaced soon.When it comes to the Marlins http://www.dodgersfanproshop.com/authentic-max-muncy-jersey , many things are a work in progress.Wearing new uniforms with the rebranded team logo, in a stadium that has gotten spruced-up since last season ended, some of the 2019 Miami Marlins gathered for the first time to greet fans and start hyping the new season. Pitchers and catchers report to the team’s spring training home in Jupiter on Wednesday.“I would tell our fans to just give us a chance,” Marlins President of Baseball Operations Michael Hill said. “So many people have written off the Marlins and really haven’t taken an opportunity to take a deep look at what we’re building. When you have a lot to do, it’s going to take time and we understand where we’re at. But we’ve been able to add a tremendous amount of talent over the last 18 months.”By Hill’s count, the Marlins have added 38 prospects and upper-level players since this new regime led by Derek Jeter took over after the 2017 season. That has gone a long way toward restocking a farm system that by Hill’s own description was “barren.”“We know where we were,” he said. “We know where we’re going.”The Marlins won 63 games last season, their ninth straight year under the .500 mark and the 15th consecutive time the team missed the postseason — the second-longest drought in baseball, topped only by Seattle’s run of 17 straight seasons without a playoff game. Attendance plummeted to a club record-low 811 Ross Stripling Jersey ,104, and the team just traded away its best player, sending catcher J.T. Realmuto to Philadelphia.“Only one team gets to win the championship every year,” said right-handed pitcher Dan Straily, who started 56 games for the Marlins over the last two seasons. “I think every year, with every team in baseball, there’s a little bit of excitement for everybody to get going. There’s always that hope that this could be the year.”The Marlins aren’t saying if 2019 is their year. Or 2020. Or 2021, for that matter.They just believe their year is coming.For Realmuto, the Marlins got catcher Jorge Alfaro and pitching prospects Sixto Sanchez and Will Stewart from the Phillies. Alfaro has above-average power and http://www.dodgersfanproshop.com/authentic-max-muncy-jersey , the Marlins believe, even a better arm than Realmuto — who they considered elite in that capacity. Sanchez has the arm to consistently reach the upper 90s on his fastball, while Stewart doesn’t throw as hard but has off-speed offerings that get him out of trouble.It’s deals like that why the Marlins truly believe this rebuild — one of many by the franchise in the last 15 years — is the right one.“They’re doing what they said: building the organization from the bottom up,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “You keep acquiring talent. You keep marching down that road that gets you to the point where you are competing for a chance to win a world championship every year. That’s the plan. That’s the goal. I think anything less than that, you don’t accept it.”There was a reason why the grass looked bad Saturday. Monster Jam — a show where five- or six-ton trucks with 66-inch tires will destroy anything in their path — is coming to Marlins Park next weekend. It’ll chew up the current turf quite nicely. From there, new sod goes down in time for opening day.“It’ll look nothing like it does right now when we come back in six weeks,” Straily said.The grass will be exactly what the team wants by then. The Marlins only hope the team is closer to their liking by then as well.
