protesters dwindled

chenyan94 · Verfasst am: 12.10.2018, 03:43 Titel: **protesters dwindled**

SAN FRANCISCO — The Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants begin a stretch of six meetings in nine days Tuesday night when they hook up in the opener of a three-game series at AT&T Park.

The National League West contenders also will square off three times in Denver next week.

The Rockies (38-40) and Giants (40-39) begin the sequence separated by just one game in the loss column. Each would like to head north in the National League West standings while sending the other south at the same time.

“We obviously need to make a run before the All-Star break Womens JuJu Smith-Schuster Jersey ,” Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez proclaimed after Sunday’s 8-5 home loss to Miami. “We need to finish the first half strong, just the way we started the season. We have a good group, but it just seems like we are going through a rough time.”

That surely can be said of Colorado’s starting pitcher in the series opener, right-hander Chad Bettis (5-1, 5.23 ERA). He has allowed 28 earned runs in 26 innings in his last five starts, yet has somehow managed to go 1-0 during that span.

He had a similar dynamic earlier this season in a matchup with the Giants. He did not pitch particularly well, allowing five runs and 10 hits in six innings, but the Rockies found a way to pull out a 6-5 win.

Bettis has faced the Giants 13 times in his career, nine times as a starter. He has gone 3-4 with a 4.79 ERA in those games.

The 29-year-old right-hander is 1-1 with a 4.71 ERA in five career games, including three starts, in San Francisco.

He has been stung by the long ball this season, allowing 14 home runs in his 15 starts, and has given up homers in his career to six current Giants, including outfielder Gorkys Hernandez http://www.officialavalanche.com/authentic-adidas-j.t.-compher-jersey , who had a home run and three doubles in his last three games against the San Diego Padres.

Hernandez had a nice week — eight hits, including four doubles and two home runs — but nothing like the one experienced by Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado, who smacked five homers among 11 hits last week.

Arenado was rewarded with National League Player of the Week honors.

He has a homer in nine career plate appearances against left-hander Derek Holland (5-7, 4.4 Cool

, who will open the series for the Giants. Arenado also has a double, a single and two walks in those nine head-to-heads, giving him a .556 on-base percentage in the matchup.

Holland has struggled in general in his career against the Rockies, going 1-2 with an 8.40 ERA in three starts.

Two of those three starts came earlier this season, including the lone win in his most recent meeting, when he allowed four runs in five innings in a 7-4 victory last month.

He had earlier given up four runs in six innings in a 6-1 loss.

The 31-year-old has pitched well in June, going 2-1 in four starts, allowing just seven earned runs in 20 innings.

The Giants enter the series having won five of six. The Rockies are coming off a 4-3 homestand during which they suffered consecutive weekend losses to the Marlins.

Long before Colin Kaepernick's protest during the national anthem became one of the biggest issues in the NFL, Oakland Raiders tight end Jared Cook was one of a handful of St. Louis players who took part in their own on-field display against police brutality and racial injustice.

Cook was one of five players on the Rams in 2014 who mimicked the "Hands up, don't shoot" symbol during pregame introductions in support of protesters in Ferguson Carlton Davis Color Rush Jersey , Missouri, after a grand jury declined to indict a police officer in the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man, Michael Brown.

While Cook has not been a regular part of protests during the national anthem since Kaepernick first started it in 2016, he supports the cause and disagrees with the NFL's announcement last week that players would be required to stand during the national anthem.

"We're here for a bigger platform," he said Tuesday. "We're not just athletes. We're people that live this. It's people in our neighborhood, it's people that we grew up with, it's people that we know who are actually living through these circumstances. So when we speak on it, it's not like we're just speaking out of the side of our neck. It's things that actually touch home and things that we can actually relate to. All I have to say is, I just think it's sad that it's veered from something that stood for good and the whole narrative has changed into something that's negative when that was not what it was initially about in the first place."

Kaepernick stoked the debate over the anthem when he began protesting police brutality and racial injustice in 2016 by refusing to stand during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before games.

Several players followed suit that year but the issue really moved to the forefront in 2017 when President Donald Trump brought it up at a campaign rally, saying NFL owners should fire any player who refused to stand during the anthem.

More than 200 players protested during the anthem that weekend before the number of protesters dwindled as the season progressed. But the league tried to settle the issue last week by mandating that players must either stand respectfully for the anthem or remain in the locker room. Teams will be subject to fines if players don't comply and will have the option of punishing players.

While other leagues like the NBA already mandate that players stand for the anthem, Cook said there could have been better consultation with the union on this issue and a way to give players an avenue to express their views on these issues.

"You look at a league like the NBA," he said. "I think the NBA always handles its social issues pretty well. It always handles its players really well and with utmost respect for the players. I think there could have been a bigger and a better way to fix the situation."