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Giants-Rockies Preview

May 6, 2009 - 6:43 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

San Francisco (13-12) at Colorado (10-15), 8:40 p.m. EDT

Randy Johnson has more wins against the Colorado Rockies than anyone, and he beat them again in impressive fashion during his last trip to the mound.

Looking to take a step closer to 300 career victories, the left-hander looks for another dominant performance Wednesday night when the San Francisco Giants open a two-game road set with the NL West rivals.

Johnson (2-2, 4.50 ERA), who's 45 and in his 22nd season, is 19-7 with a 2.23 ERA and 251 strikeouts in 28 career starts against the Rockies. That win total is his highest against any opponent, and he hasn't lost to them since Sept. 22, 2004 while with Arizona.

Since then, Johnson has won all five of his starts against Colorado, posting a 1.64 ERA with 38 strikeouts in 33 innings.

The Big Unit continued that dominance for the Giants (13-12) on Friday, striking out the first five Rockies and retiring the first 11 overall. He scattered four hits over seven scoreless innings and finished with nine strikeouts in a 3-2 win.

That left him three wins shy of becoming the 24th pitcher to reach 300.

"You pick up the newspaper (Saturday) and you wouldn't know whether I was 45 or 25. That's the beauty of this game," Johnson told the Giants' official Web site. "It's really what I strive for and it's what I've been about.

"I'm not here just to win five games (the number of victories he needed for 300 when the season began) and be a question mark every fifth day."

Johnson is 7-4 with a 3.50 ERA in 12 starts at Coors Field.

He'll try to help the Giants build on Tuesday's 6-2 win over the Cubs in Chicago to move two games above .500 for the first time since May 23, 2007.

San Francisco took two of three meetings from the Rockies (10-15) last weekend, but dropped four of nine road meetings in 2008.

The Giants are expected to have Pablo Sandoval back in the lineup after he didn't start Tuesday to rest a sore groin. The second-year first baseman, who flied out as a pinch-hitter against the Cubs, is 7-for-18 (.389) with one homer and two RBIs and a .421 on-base percentage in his last six games.

He leads the team with a .319 batting average after hitting .345 in 41 games last year. Sandoval went 4-for-11 with a triple and a solo homer in the last three meetings with Colorado.

The Rockies, who have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games, are looking to rebound from Tuesday's 2-1, 10-inning loss at San Diego to settle for a split of the two-game series.

Chris Iannetta is providing some punch at the plate, going 3-for-8 with two homers and five RBIs in the two games against the Padres. That came after the catcher went 1-for-6 with a solo homer in two games against the Giants.

Iannetta is hitting .358 with four homers and 20 RBIs in 31 career games against San Francisco.

Colorado will give the ball to Ubaldo Jimenez (1-4, 6.58), who started opposite Johnson on Friday, and allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings to lose his fourth consecutive start. The right-hander has a 9.00 ERA in that span.

Jimenez is 1-2 with a 2.65 ERA in six career starts against San Francisco.