DENVER — The Colorado Rockies will begin a crucial 10-game

homestand Monday against the San Francisco Giants followed by three games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and four against the Arizona Diamondbacks.The Rockies Youth Myles Jack Jersey , Dodgers and Diamondbacks are locked in a tight National League West race. Colorado is in second place, a half-game behind the Dodgers and a half-game ahead of the Diamondbacks.Winning a second straight game Sunday in San Diego enabled Colorado to salvage a split of a four-game series with the Padres and conclude a 3-3 road trip. The victory also left the Rockies 1 1/2 games behind the St. Louis Cardinals for the second NL wild-card spot.Article continues below ...The Rockies are 8-5 against the Giants this season and 5-1 at Coors Field. Left-hander Tyler Anderson (6-7, 4.79 ERA) will start for the Rockies and try to rebound after struggling in August. Left-handed ace Madiso Bumgarner (5-5, 2.68) will start for the Giants.Despite losing five of the past eight games, the Rockies have gained a half-game in the standings during that stretch. They are 34-30 at home, including 11-7 since the All-Star break.In the Rockies’ 7-3 win over the Padres on Sunday, key late-game relievers Scott Oberg (2.64 ERA) and Adam Ottavino (2.01) each pitched a scoreless inning. Both have worked in two straight games and three of the past four.After the victory, Rockies manager Bud Black said, ” ‘Otto’ will be down (Monday). Oberg will be down. And the other guys who pitch in relief, if it’s a tight game with the Giants, have to come through for us. That’s what it’s going to take.”Improvement from Anderson could determine whether it’s a tight game. He gave up seven hits and six runs on Aug. 26 against St. Louis and lasted a career-low two-thirds of an inning as the Cardinals romped 12-3.The Rockies pushed back Anderson’s next start, and he will take the mound with seven days’ rest and hoping to improve his wayward command.Anderson went 0-4 with an 11.39 ERA in five August starts and allowed nine homers in 21 1/3 innings along with a .368 batting average and 1.174 OPS by opponents. He has gone nine starts since he last won July 4 when he blanked the Giants on two hits for eight innings at Coors Field.Anderson is 1-2 with a 4.11 ERA in five starts against the Giants, including two this season in which he’s 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA.Bumgarner threw seven shutout innings Tuesday against Atlanta but ended up with a no-decision in the Giants’ 1-0 win. He has allowed two or fewer earned runs in six of his past seven starts — the exception when he gave up a season-high five earned runs on Aug. 18 at Cincinnati — going 2-2 with a 2.11 ERA during that stretch while holding opponents to a .199 average and .676 OPS.Bumgarner is 12-8 with a 2.93 ERA in 28 career starts against the Rockies, including 0-1 with a 1.38 ERA in two starts this year. He’s 5-6 with a 3.93 ERA in 14 starts at Coors Field.In the past eight games http://www.jaguarscheapstore.com/myles-jack-jersey-cheap , the Giants’ starters have a 1.20 ERA (seven earned runs, 52 1/3 innings). But San Francisco has scored three or fewer runs in six of its past nine games.The Giants (68-70) have dropped three of their past four games, including the final two of three to the New York Mets after trading right fielder Andrew McCutchen to the New York Yankees for two prospects just before the Aug. 31 trade deadline.The Giants acquired McCutchen last winter. No longer the middle-of-the lineup force he was in Pittsburgh, McCutchen noneheless played regularly for the Giants. But they are mired in fourth place, and with McCutchen eligible for free agency after the season, a trade, while not welcome, made sense.“Contrary to some other general managers, our front office, we don’t necessarily relish the trade deadline and being involved in this,” Giants executive vice president for baseball operations Brian Sabean told the San Jose Mercury News. “You’ve got people going out the door that you’re invested in and you’re never really sure of the return, etc. We all know the drill.” BOSTON (AP) — Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred doesn’t foresee any problems if the World Series winner is invited to visit the White House.Both World Series teams have minority managers for the first time, and President Donald Trump has had tense relationships with many minority groups.“I think as an institution, Major League Baseball has always had the greatest respect for the office of the presidency Youth Yannick Ngakoue Jersey ,” Manfred said. “That doesn’t change, no matter who’s there. Often we’ve had situations where individuals, players, whatever, don’t agree with all of the policies of the individual that occupies the office. I think the important thing is respect for the office.”Manfred addressed a number of topics prior to Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday night, including start times and length of games. Boston’s win in the World Series opener took 3 hours, 52 minutes and ended at 12:03 a.m. EDT. Manfred said complaints about World Series start times reflect an East Coast prejudice.“When you start games at 5 o’clock Eastern, it’s the middle of the work day in LA. That’s not quite right either,” he said. “We’re trying to strike a balance and get the point, the window, where we can get the most people all across the country having a meaningful opportunity to watch the game.”Nine-inning games in the league playoffs averaged 3 hours, 35 1/2 minutes, up 6 minutes from the 2017 postseason and more than a half-hour longer than this year’s regular season.“I am always less concerned about it in the postseason,” Manfred said “It is human nature when the stakes go up http://www.jaguarscheapstore.com/yannick-ngakoue-jersey-cheap , things slow down a little bit.”Manfred anticipates a new round of negotiations with players’ union head Tony Clark and his members over pace of play and game rules. Management had the right to unilaterally implement a pitch clock before the 2018 season but did not, and it retains the right to install pitch clocks for 2019. MLB did institute a limit on mound trips without pitching changes for 2018.“I spent a lot of time between the All-Star Game and here talking directly to Tony, trying to map out the things that we’d like to have meaningful conversation about during the offseason, putting him in a position to get prepared to do,” Manfred said.Baseball is monitoring rapid changes to the game caused by analytics, including shorter average outings for starting pitchers — and some teams going entirely with relief pitchers.“I do think that starting pitchers being on the field less presents yet another challenge for us in terms of marketing the game,” he said. “You look historically, right, some of our greatest stars are starters, and if they’re out there less, it has a predictable effect.”Tampa Bay used a so-called “opener” instead of a starter in 78 games. Oakland and Milwaukee had bullpen games during the playoffs.“I do think it can be a useful strategy for clubs in certain types of economic situations,” Manfred said. “It’s really hard to argue with that based on the early returns. We’ll see how the returns look over the long haul.”Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw expressed concern this week that teams may favor relievers over starters because they are less costly.“The market’s going to answer that question, right? We’ll see what happens in the market,” Manfred said. “I’m not sure that that trend at this point is persistent enough to have a market effect Authentic Patrick Mahomes Jersey , but we’re going to have another market here in just a few weeks and we’ll see what happens.”Strikeouts exceeded hits over a season for the first time in major league history, causing worry that there are too many pitching changes based on matchups that decrease offense.“I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about whether analytics are a good thing or a bad thing, and the reason for that is they are a real thing,” Manfred said. “We have them. They’re going to continue to use them. There’s nothing you can do to stop people from thinking about the game, however the heck it is they want to think about the game. I think what’s incumbent upon us and what we try to do is pay attention over the course of the season … think about we’ve learned during the postseason and see whether we may need to make some change in response to what we’re seeing.”On other topics:SIGN STEALINGWhile MLB cleared Houston of breaking rules on electronic surveillance, additional rules could be put in place for next season.“Sign stealing in and of itself is not a violation of our rules. It’s been a part of the game since Lassie was a puppy,” Manfred said. “Where it becomes a problem is where there is a use of technology that otherwise violates our rules to aid the sign-stealing process. I think technology is evolving at a rate that it is incumbent upon us to constantly review and update our rules.”TAMPA BAY BALLPARKManfred remains hopeful the Rays will have a plan in place for a new ballpark by Dec. 31, the end of their agreement with St. Petersburg that allows the team to explore sites throughout the Tampa-St. Petersburg area. The Rays hope to leave St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field and build a ballpark in Ybor City.“I love the site. I think that in terms of its geographic location in the region it’s a good one,” he said. “We have some work to do in terms of getting a financing plan together that will get that stadium built.”ANGELS BALLPARKManfred said the Angels‘ decision to opt out of their ballpark lease is part of a negotiation and should not cause worry the team would leave the area.