San Francisco @ Colorado preview

Last Meeting ( May 28, 2016 ) San Francisco 10, Colorado 5

Facing the Colorado Rockies in Coors Field is often an unenviable task for even the most accomplished pitchers, but such has not been the case for Johnny Cueto. The 30-year-old Dominican looks to extend an 18 1/3 scoreless-inning streak against Colorado on Sunday as the San Francisco Giants face the Rockies in the rubber match of their three-game set.

San Francisco has won each of Cueto's last six starts and is 9-1 with him taking the mound this season, although one of his two no-decisions came in a masterful performance at home against the Rockies in which he tossed 8 1/3 scoreless frames on May 7. He turned in a nearly identical outing in his last start at Coors Field for the Cincinnati Reds prior to his trade to the Kansas City Royals last July, hurling eight scoreless frames in a win versus the Rockies to improve to 3-1 with a 2.61 ERA over five career starts in Denver. Thanks in part to Cueto's contributions, the Giants (31-20) have won 14 of 16 to move from a 17-18 squad on May 10 to a team that owns the second-best record in the National League. The Rockies are the one NL West opponent that has a winning record against San Francisco this season, however, going 5-4 while outscoring the Giants 57-46 even after Saturday's 10-5 setback.
TV: 4:10 p.m. ET, CSN Bay Area (San Francisco), ROOT (Colorado)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Giants RH Johnny Cueto (7-1, 2.38 ERA) vs. Rockies LH Chris Rusin (1-2, 3.93)
Cueto is coming off consecutive complete-game wins against San Diego, including a two-hit shutout on Tuesday when he fanned six to improve to 3-0 with a 0.81 ERA over his last four turns. The one-time All-Star has yielded only two home runs to the 293 batters he has faced and has posted a 5.58:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio thus far - the best mark of his career. Cueto, who has faced division foes in four straight and eight of his 10 outings overall, is 4-2 with a 2.44 ERA in nine starts against the Rockies.
Rusin appears to have righted himself following a horrendous beginning of the month and is coming off a relief appearance Monday in Pittsburgh in which he worked 4 2/3 scoreless innings. The Detroit native turned in a quality start five days earlier at St. Louis, which followed a two-start stretch in which he was tagged for 11 runs and 23 hits in 10 innings. The first of those two poor outings was a no-decision in a 17-7 win in San Francisco in which he surrendered seven runs and 13 hits in 4 1/3 frames.

WALK-OFFS
1. The Giants are 21-0 when they outhit their opponent this season and the only team that has yet to lose when they do so.
2. CF Charlie Blackmon has reached base safely in 23 straight games and is one of five Colorado regulars with career batting averages of at least .294 against Cueto.
3. San Francisco RF Hunter Pence (hamstring) and 1B Brandon Belt (ankle) each returned from one-game absences with multi-hit games Saturday, combining to go 5-for-10.

PREDICTION: Giants 5, Rockies 2