The Rockies and Giants begin a three game weekend series on Friday night.
Colorado will make its first of three visits to San Francisco this season, and will do so as the most explosive offense in 2014 so far.
San Francisco finished 7-2 at home against the Rockies last year, and will try to build upon that success with their top three arms taking the mound in this series.
Colorado's previous series: A surprise to no one, the Rockies are fresh off an all hitting, no pitching series victory against the White Sox. Colorado allowed 20 runs, but scored 21 to come away with two victories in the three game series. Their record now sits at an even 5-5 on the season.
San Francisco's previous series: The Giants kicked off their home schedule with a 7-3 victory against Arizona on Tuesday. Despite scoring 15 runs in the series, the Giants came away with just one win as the Diamondbacks took the final two, including a 6-5 extra inning win on Thursday. San Francisco is now 6-4 on the year.
Rockies' probable starters: Jorge De La Rosa (4/11), Brett Anderson (4/12), Tyler Chatwood (4/13)
Giants' probable starters: Madison Bumgarner (4/11), Matt Cain (4/12), Tim Hudson (4/13)
Three things to know for the series:
1) Red hot offenses collide: The Rockies and Giants are the top two scoring offenses in the National League coming into this series.
While that may not be a surprise on Colorado's part, the Giants have held their own offensively, including 15 runs in the first three games at AT&T Park.
Expect both offenses to slow down a little bit in this series, but overall both teams have been carried by several hot bats in the lineup.
Colorado has been propelled by some impressive stat lines thus far, as their first five hitters in the lineup – Blackmon, Cuddyer, Tulowitzki, Gonzalez and Morneau – all come into Friday's game hitting over .385 for the year.
It's easy to see how the Rockies rank near the top in every offensive category through the first 10 days of the season.
The Giants aren't off to a bad start either, as they have an MLB-leading 15 home runs, including five from Brandon Belt.
Angel Pagan is leading the way in hitting, with a ridiculous .442 average, but Morse and Posey each boast averages over .350 as well.
While the first month's stats should always be taken with a grain of salt, it will be interesting to see what effect – if any – AT&T Park has on each of these offenses.
Until the bats cool off, both pitching staffs will have to be extra sharp this weekend.
2) The 'Tulo' and 'Cargo' connection is healthy: In what has become a rare occurrence recently, both Tulowitzki and Gonzalez are healthy and producing in the early going of the season.
Tulowitzki did miss Wednesday's game with a calf pull, but appears to be on track to play this weekend. The 29 year old shortstop is hitting .407 with a home run and five RBIs thus far.
Not to be outdone, Gonzalez is off to a .389/3/11 start.
The good news is that Gonzalez has struggled in San Francisco, posting just a .213 career average at AT&T.
Tulowitzki has enjoyed moderate success, hitting .287 with eight home runs lifetime in San Francisco.
The Rockies boast a formidable lineup with these two anchoring it, and slowing them down will be a key to finding success for the Giants pitchers in this series.
3) Third time's a charm for Cain?: After back-to-back rough starts, Cain will finally take the mound at home for the first time.
With Cain's most recent bout of home run fever, it appears that his increase in home runs allowed last year may have been a foreshadowing for this season as well.
In baseball, one year is a fluke but two years is a trend – and Cain is unfortunately trending in the wrong direction.
After giving up a career high 23 home runs last season, Cain has already given up three in just 11 innings pitched to kick off this year.
He won't catch a break in terms of opponent, as he will face yet another offense with home run threats up and down the lineup, but the hope is that getting back to San Francisco will help Cain get into a groove again.
Cain will take the mound on Saturday, facing a Rockies team he has dominated in recent years. Cain is 17-7 lifetime versus Colorado, including 9-1 since 2010.
If past performance is any indication, Cain should fare much better against the Rockies and perhaps get into the win column for the first time in 2014.
Final note: Justin Morneau is the Rockies' new first baseman. Todd Helton retired after the 2013 season, ending a 16 year run as the Rockies' full time starter at the position.
To put that in perspective, Helton made his MLB debut on August 2nd, 1997 – the day after Madison Bumgarner celebrated his 8th birthday.
