One of the most powerful catchers in the game today will get an opportunity to strut his stuff in front of one of the greats of the past when the Colorado Rockies and San Francisco Giants meet in a three-game series starting Friday night in Northern California.

The set matches teams that haven't had much impact on the National League playoff picture in recent weeks and now turn their attention to avoiding last place in the NL West.

The fifth-place Rockies will take the field for the series opener riding a two-game winning streak, which, at 48-73, has moved them within two games of the fourth-place Giants, whose 2-4 homestand to date has dropped them to 50-71.

Colorado's most recent wins occurred at the expense of the Arizona Diamondbacks and came after the Rockies had lost six of seven.

Hunter Goodman didn't homer in the Arizona series, but did contribute his first triple of the season. He's hit three homers in his last 10 games and 34 for the season.

The 26-year-old is top-five in homers in the major leagues and eight ahead of Detroit's Dillon Dingler for the most among catchers.

The 34 homers already are 10 more than Buster Posey ever hit in a single season during his brilliant 12-year run as the Giants' primary catcher. Then again, Posey, now the franchise's president of baseball operations, was stuck in homer-unfriendly Oracle Park his entire career.

Currently in his fourth season, Goodman has managed just one homer in 19 games in San Francisco. That came last September against Justin Verlander.

On Friday, the All-Star is expected to get his first crack against Giants right-hander Landen Roupp (7-11, 4.22), who has gone just 3-6 at home this season despite allowing only three homers.

Remarkably, the 27-year-old has never faced the Rockies in any of his 49 career starts, all with the Giants.

Goodman's triple in Phoenix on Tuesday could provide a blueprint for his plan of attack at Oracle Park, where the vast, wide-open spaces of right-center field have been dubbed "Triples Alley."

"I knew I hit it pretty well," Goodman said of his shot to right-center against the Diamondbacks, "but this is a big ballpark and the ball doesn't quite fly as well here. I just started running and was hoping it got down."

The Rockies are scheduled to open the series with left-hander Kyle Freeland (3-10, 6.63), a 10-year veteran who has plenty of experience against the Giants. The 33-year-old has made 29 starts against the NL West rival, including one last month in San Francisco in which he allowed four runs in six innings in a 4-2 defeat.

Freeland has an 8-10 record and 4.41 ERA in his career against the Giants.

This time, he will be seeing a San Francisco team that has dropped four consecutive series to playoff contenders -- going 1-3 against San Diego before dropping two of three apiece to Texas, Detroit and Houston.

One Giant that Freeland is unlikely to face will be Willy Adames, who moved gingerly due to a sore back and had to be pulled from Wednesday's 2-1 loss to the Astros. The Giants are hopeful rest -- rather than an IL stint -- will resolve the issue.

"Anyone who saw him obviously knew he wasn't moving around (at) full speed," Giants manager Tony Vitello told reporters after the game. "The biggest thing (is to) prevent anything from getting any worse than it is."

--Field Level Media