SAN FRANCISCO — The letter taunted them. Last weekend, Rockies season-ticket holders received postseason applications in the mail.
Playoffs? The team needed binoculars to see the division leaders. Playoffs? What in the world would compel fans to put down a deposit on October tickets?
Because these are the Rockies, for whom the improbable always seems possible. When they show up in opposing parks this time of year, they require a taste-tester.
Poison to others’ dreams, the Rockies began Wednesday with a chance to move five games back of the division lead for the first time in four months.
Two pitches and one of baseball’s brightest stars prevented it.
The Rockies fell 4-1 to the San Francisco Giants at raucous AT&T Park, nudged six games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West.
“We are in as good a place as we have been all season,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “We let this one get away. But we will regroup.”
It wasn’t so much a loss as a coronation of Tim Lincecum. Looking at Tiny Tim, it’s hard to imagine a less intimidating figure. He goes 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds. Earlier this season when the Giants were in Washington, D.C., he was confused for a batboy.
Hate his Little League looks if you must. But not his talent. This is Mark Fidrych. Or a right-handed Sandy Koufax. He overwhelmed the Rockies for 7 2/3 innings, his only lapse back-to-back hits from Chris Iannetta and Troy Tulowitzki in the second that created a 1-0 deficit.
Lincecum (15-3) surrendered just five hits, while reaching at least 10 strikeouts for the seventh time this season. His arsenal borders on cruel and unusual punishment. He throws a 97 mph fastball, an 86 mph slider, 75 mph curveball, and, his latest addition, an 88 mph power changeup. That pitch was filthy, not seen since the likes of Jason Schmidt and Eric Gagne circa 2003.
“He’s a whirling dervish out there,” Hurdle said. “For Giants fans, I am sure he brings back memories of Juan Marichal.”
And yet for all of Lincecum’s mastery, Livan Hernandez was poised to turn him into a loser, factually speaking. Hernandez, who had laid an egg since joining the Rockies, strung together Faberges for six innings. It was a bit of justification for Hurdle, who was criticized for keeping Hernandez in the rotation.
“In info shared with me from other people they will ask, ‘How can you do this?’ Well, how can I not give a guy with his pedigree a fourth start?” Hurdle said before Hernandez saved his spot. “They say that I am giving up on the season. How lame is that? You have to give him a viable opportunity.”
He capitalized, but the shutout and the potential victory vanished on a pair of mistakes.
Bengie Molina crushed an 86 mph fastball into the left-center-field seats in the seventh inning. Hernandez gathered himself and started Pablo Sandoval with an outside heater on the very next pitch.
Showing patience that the Giants lacked for much of the evening – broken-hearted groundballs defined them – the rookie managed to keep his hands back and deposit it just inside the left-field foul pole.
“I didn’t think it was a mistake,” Hernandez said.
The scoreboard panels in the upper deck inspired hope. Lincecum had thrown 118 pitches after seven innings. There was a realistic belief that he might not return. When reliever Tyler Walker jogged out to warm up in the bullpen, he was booed. Ultimately, Lincecum ran out in the eighth to a standing ovation.
Lincecum finished with a season-high 132 pitches, leaving Jack Taschner and Brian Wilson to vanquish the Rockies’ last breaths.
“Timmy is honest. There have been a couple of games when he said that his legs are cramping. He was adamant that he felt great and the ‘pen had been used quite a bit,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “We had no problem sending him back out.”
Playoff teams, perhaps, win this type of game. That the Rockies are even in contention, however, strains the limits of the imagination.
And creates difficult decisions for those weighing postseason deposits.
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
Upcoming pitching matchups
Today:
Off day.
Friday:
Rockies’ Aaron Cook (15-8, 3.91 ERA) vs. Padres’ Dirk Hayhurst (0-0, 6.75), 8:05 p.m., FSN
Saturday:
Rockies’ Ubaldo Jimenez (9-11, 3.95) vs. Padres’ Jake Peavy (9-9, 2.84), 8:05 p.m., FSN
Sunday:
Rockies’ Jeff Francis (4-8, 5.36) vs. Padres’ Chris Young (4-4, 4.74) or Chad Reineke (2-1, 4.50), 2:05 p.m., FSN
