SAN FRANCISCO — was born with the burden of being right-handed. After he broke camp on a major-league roster for the first time in his life, the Rockies’ backup catcher was served up like a sacrifice to the pitching deities.
Within a week, Garneau faced the two best lefties in baseball, the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw and the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner. Garneau is statistical desperation for the Rockies — his right-handed swing is slightly more likely over 1,000 at-bats to scratch out a hit compared to his left-swinging counterpart, .
So Colorado manager Bud Black assigned Garneau to face Kershaw, last weekend, and Bumgarner, on Thursday to open a four-game series against the Giants at AT&T Park.
“I know it’s coming,” he said.
The Rockies are looking for hits anywhere they can find them. In a three-game series at against the lowly Padres this week, they collectively hit 15-for-90 (.167). Five of those hits were home runs, three of them came in one game, all solo shots in a 3-2 victory Tuesday. In the other two games, the Rox were outscored 11-3.
It was a wasted series, sandwiched between matchups against the Dodgers, the National League West champions four years running, and the Giants, winners of three World Series since 2010. Their bats busted, the Rockies missed a chance to win three consecutive series to start a season for just the second time in their 25-year history.
“We can stack our lineup against anybody in baseball. It’s just, this is how baseball works,” Garneau said. “You have ebbs and flows and we’re in one of those valleys for us. We’ll get out.”
The Rockies are nearing the end of a breathless season-opening stretch of 14 games in 14 days. It culminates in a four-game set against the Giants. San Francisco’s top two pitchers, Bumgarner, who pitched Thursday, and Johnny Cueto, who will throw Friday, dominated the Rockies last season. The Giants went 6-1 in games they pitched.
Facing that duo in ideal circumstances is a tough assignment. Doing it while trying to snuff out a collective hitting funk may be a disaster in the making.
“No secrets here,” Black said. “There are no tricks with Bumgarner, man. Familiarity, and knowing him, I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. You look at his record book, he’s pretty good. He doesn’t give up very many runs.”
There is a precedent for hope, Garneau said. On Saturday at Coors Field, the Rockies nibbled eight hits of Kershaw in a 4-2 victory.
“I didn’t really see him well that day at all, if you couldn’t tell,” Garneau said. He struck out three times against Kershaw, but , and homered off him. “When you can beat one of the best — pardon me, the best — it’s always a huge confidence boost for your team. Especially with our offense struggling a little bit, collectively. Beating him that day was a big deal for us.”
Desmond ramping up. Ian Desmond, the Rockies’ high-profile offseason signing, let loose Thursday for the first time since he suffered a broken hand in spring training, taking infield practice like a nearly full-functioning first baseman.
“Ian is gaining on it,” Colorado manager Bud Black said. “He’s starting to get some clearance to up the activity. He’s able to play catch, take short-hops, a few groundballs.”
Footnotes. Colorado catcher , who broke a bone in his right forearm the day before Desmond’s injury, remains in a thumb-extending brace and has not started participating on the field. … Outfielder David Dahl remains in the Rockies’ infirmary with a stressed rib bone. But he will return to the team this weekend. Dahl is playing catch and doing cardio work, but not hitting or fielding. … Veteran reliever (forearm strain) was scheduled for a second rehab appearance Thursday night in Reno, Nev., for Triple-A Albuquerque. … (Tommy John) pitched his second rehab appearance for High-A Lancaster on Wednesday night. He gave up two runs on two hits with two strikeouts in one inning.
