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Holliday looks to continue hot hitting

May 2, 2007 - 1:40 PM Colorado (11-16) at San Francisco (13-12) 10:15 pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Matt Holliday will look to continue his hot hitting when the Colorado Rockies visit the San Francisco Giants in the finale of a three-game series on Wednesday.

An underrated outfielder, Holliday also will look to extend his 14-game hitting streak, which is the longest in the National League this season. During that span, the slugging left fielder is hitting .467 with 14 RBI.

Holliday homered and drove in four runs in the Rockies' 9-7 victory over the Giants on Tuesday. Entering Wednesday's contest, Holliday leads the team in batting average (.395), homers (four) and RBI (23).

Despite Holliday's torrid stretch, Colorado is 4-8 in its last 12 games thanks to a putrid output from the rest of the lineup. The Rockies have scored just 115 runs and are tied with Washington for worst in the league with 12 homers as a team.

But in Tuesday's win, Colorado got some help from its bullpen. After starter Taylor Buchholz struggled - allowing six runs and eight hit in 3 1/3 innings - Alberto Arias picked up the win in relief in his major league debut. He tossed 3 2/3 innings, yielding just one hit.

The Rockies will look to keep it going behind Jeff Francis (1-3, 6.52 ERA), who has lost three straight starts, including a dismal performance in a 9-7 defeat to Atlanta last Friday.

The lefthander allowed four runs and 11 hits in 5 1/3 frames en route to yielding 21 runs and an astronomical 45 hits in 29 innings in five starts this season.

The Giants will counter with ace Barry Zito (2-3, 3.73), who had pitched 13 1/3 scoreless innings prior to his last start. In that outing, he yielded three runs and six hits in seven innings in a 3-2 loss to Arizona on Friday.

San Francisco has lost four of its last five games after a season-high eight-game winning streak from April 18-26.