Francis set for season debut as Rockies close out set with Nats

Baseball Betting Lines

05/16/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeff Francis is expected to make his first start in well over a year this afternoon for the Colorado Rockies, who are coming off a sweep of yesterday's doubleheader and will look to secure a series win over the Washington Nationals in the finale of a four-game series at Coors Field.

The left-handed Francis hasn't pitched in the majors since Sept. 12, 2008 due to a shoulder injury that he battled all season and eventually required surgery that cost him all of 2009. Francis made six starts for Colorado this past spring, but he experienced soreness towards the end of spring training and began the season on the disabled list.

The former ace of Colorado's staff, Francis won a career-high 17 games in 2007, but went 4-10 with a 5.01 earned run average in 24 starts the following season.

"A lot of things have happened between my last start and my next start," Francis told Colorado's website. "I'm happy to be in there. I've done a lot of work to get to that point. I hope I can help this team win a lot of ballgames."

The 29-year-old has faced the Nationals four times in his career, going 1-1 with a 6.04 ERA.

Francis will try to become the second Colorado pitcher in two days to earn a win in his return from the disabled list after Jason Hammel picked up a victory in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader. Returning from a strained right groin, Hammel threw seven innings of three-run ball, while Paul Phillips scored the go-ahead run in the seventh inning on a throwing error by Washington, lifting Colorado to a 4-3 triumph.

Jason Giambi and Miguel Olivo both hit solo homers in the first game, a 6-2 Rockies win that saw starter Ubaldo Jimenez join Washington reliever Tyler Clippard as the only seven-game winners in baseball.

"It's one of the hardest things to do is to win both ends of a doubleheader," said Seth Smith. "Any time you can come out and do that, it's good for your team. We're trying to get over that hump, playing good baseball one day and not the next. To come out and play two good games in one day is nice."

Smith and Carlos Gonzalez hit back-to-back homers in the third inning of the late game and it was Smith's grounder that led to a throwing error by Ian Desmond that allowed Phillips to score, giving Colorado its third win in four games.

"The ball bounced over the pitcher's mitt up the middle," Desmond said. "I just fielded it tried to get rid of it as quickly as I could. I expect myself to make that play. I think I will next time, but that's just the way it goes sometime."

The two setbacks on Saturday dropped the Nationals three games behind the first-place Phillies in the National League East. They had won five of six prior to the doubleheader, including a 14-6 triumph in Thursday's opener with Colorado.

Attempting to salvage a series split for the Nats will be Scott Olsen, who no longer looks like the struggling hurler that Colorado saw on April 20.

In his second start since returning from shoulder surgery, the left-handed Olsen was drilled for six runs over just two innings versus the Rockies, who he is 1-3 against lifetime with a 9.79 ERA in six starts.

Olsen, though, is 2-0 with a 1.05 ERA in four starts since that beating, though he hasn't factored into the decision of his last two starts. He faced the Mets on Tuesday and gave up two runs on a season-high nine hits in 5 1/3 innings of work, his shortest outing over his unbeaten streak.

Washington and Colorado also split a four-game series from April 19-22 at Nationals Park, but the Rockies have won 13 of the last 16 meetings between the teams.