San Francisco – The clustered wild-card race creates extremes. A week ago, the Rockies functioned as a welcome mat for the Pittsburgh Pirates, a forgettable series that had an autopsy scheduled, an obituary written for their season.
Then Colorado swept the Nationals, storing hope in the charter’s overhead bin as the Rockies arrived in San Francisco.
But for the Rockies to realize their next goal of playing meaningful games in September, they must win road games that matter. They lost 4-1 on Monday night at wind-chilled AT&T Park, sinking 4 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres in the wild-card chase.
“We have been (resilient), but it would be better if we don’t make it so hard on ourselves,” said second baseman Jamey Carroll, upset at himself for failing in a critical at-bat.
This hurt on a number of levels.
It spoiled a solid outing from Josh Fogg (six innings, one run), raised questions about whether the setup men should be shuffled (manager Clint Hurdle said Brian Fuentes is now ready to share the eighth- inning duty and work on back-to-back days) and provided a wince moment when the offense sputtered with runners on second and third and one out in the seventh inning.
The Rockies were ultimately undone by a frenetic eighth inning from Jorge Julio. He explained three hours before the first pitch how much he liked Colorado and would like to re-sign as a free agent. He has been a stabilizing force in the bullpen, and proudly wears a shirt that proclaims “27 Outs … No More.” It’s a reminder to keep the game simple.
Instead, it spun out of control on the right-hander, triggered by three consecutive singles to start the inning, including a bloop to center field by Barry Bonds. With the bases loaded and no outs, a front loader magically appeared to extract Julio from damage.
Slow-footed catcher Bengie Molina grounded to shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who bobbled the ball, then fired to Yorvit Torrealba for the force at home. But Torrealba threw wide to first baseman Todd Helton.
The Giants, winners of 10 of their past 12 games, pounced. Rich Aurilia singled home the go-ahead run and Kevin Frandsen followed with a two- RBI double, that being the exclamation point in Julio’s forgettable evening. Julio was tagged for five hits and three earned runs and recorded only one out.
“There’s no excuses (given the heavy workload),” Julio said. “It was just a bad day.”
Julio would have been operating with a margin for error had the Rockies capitalized in the seventh.
With the game tied at 1 – Brad Hawpe’s 24th home run was the lone damage against Barry Zito – the Rockies had runners in scoring position after Hawpe’s sacrifice bunt. But Carroll grounded out and Ian Stewart struck out on a wicked 72 mph curveball to end the threat.
The math is now working against the Rockies unless they outrun their past on the road.
“It’s obviously an important series,” Tulowitzki said. “We need to answer back.”
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com.
