Series Preview: Colorado Rockies (26-42) @ Texas Rangers (40-27)

Roy Oswalt will make his Rangers debut tonight against the Rockies as the Rangers look to extend their six-game winning streak. The Rangers are once again on a streak where they are finding a way to win games with hitting and pitching and the fielding woes that had plagued the team through May seem to have dissipated for now.

For Colorado, they are going with a 4-man rotation and will have starters on a 75 pitch count. It worked yesterday with Jeff Francis, and it was done to save the arms of specific players in the bullpen. They also got the news that Troy Tulowitzki will be out of the lineup and might have put their hopes of a second half comeback to bed.

Series at a Glance

Texas Record: 40-27 (1st AL West)

Colorado Record: 26-42 (4th NL West, 15 GB)

Lifetime Series: 10-9 Colorado

Record at Texas: 5-3 Texas

Notable Transaction: July 31, 2002: The Texas Rangers traded Gabe Kapler, Jason Romano and cash to the Colorado Rockies for Todd Hollandsworth and Dennys Reyes.

Probable Starters:

Friday 7:05 CT TEX: RHP Roy Oswalt (Season Debut) – COL: LHP Christian Friedrich (4-3, 5.60 ERA/4.05 FIP)

Saturday 2:05 CT TEX: RHP Colby Lewis (6-5, 3.00 ERA/3.86 FIP) – COL: LHP Josh Outman (0-3, 8.41 ERA/4.13 FIP)

Sunday 6:05 CT TEX: LHP Matt Harrison (9-3, 3.41 ERA/3.56 FIP) – COL: RHP Alex White (2-7, 2-5, 6.06 ERA/5.19 FIP)

Projected Rockies Lineup
1 CF Dexter Fowler (S)
2 SS Marco Scutaro
3 LF Carlos Gonzalez (L)
4 RF Michael Cuddyer
5 1B Todd Helton (L)
6 3B Jordan Pacheco
7 2B Chris Nelson
8 C Wilin Rosario

Bench
C Wil Nieves
1B Jason Giambi (L)
1B/OF Tyler Colvin (L)
IF DJ LeMahieu
IF/OF Eric Young, Jr. (S)

Bullpen
CL RHP Rafael Betancourt
SU RHP Matt Belisle
SU LHP Matt Reynolds
MID RHP Josh Roenicke
MID LHP Rex Brothers
MID RHP Adam Ottavino
MID RHP Jeremy Guthrie
LR RHP Guillermo Moscoso

(source MLBDepthCharts)

For more information on the Rockies see FanSided’s Rockies page, RoxPile.