SAN FRANCISCO — Facing another stellar starter, the Rockies’ sleepy offense went comatose for most of Saturday night in a 5-3 loss to the surging Giants.
By the time the Rockies woke up and posted three runs in the ninth, it was too little and too late — but at least it was dramatic.
A solo home run by Brad Hawpe and a two-run single by Seth Smith cut the Giants’ lead to 5-3. With Smith on first, Todd Helton delivered a pinch-hit single. Up came Clint Barmes. Facing closer Brian Wilson, Barmes flied out to center and pounded his bat in frustration. That was an apt symbol of the Rockies’ recent offensive woes.
The Giants closed to within one game of the Rockies in the National League wild-card race as Colorado dropped its fourth straight game. It was the second time in the Jim Tracy era that the Rockies have dropped four in a row.
San Francisco starter Barry Zito confounded the Rockies for 8-1/3 innings. Chants of “Barry! Barry!” reverberated throughout AT&T Park when he left in the ninth inning. The lefty with the big hook gave up one run, scattered eight hits, struck out seven and walked just one.
Making matters even more disconcerting was this ugly statistic: The Rockies went 23 innings without scoring, dating back to the third inning of Thursday’s game against the Dodgers. That dubious achievement finally came to an end when Hawpe hit his one-out solo homer to right off Zito in the ninth.
Earlier this season, the Rockies fell into an even deeper slump when they failed to score over 27 straight innings against the Mets in New York. They rebounded with a victory in the fourth game of the series, then ran off four more victories in a row.
But the Rockies will have a tough time coming back to life in Sunday’s series finale. They’ll face Matt Cain, he of the 12-4 record and 2.39 ERA.
Saturday’s game opened with a bad omen. The Rockies entered the game with 994 strikeouts, fourth most in the majors. So things didn’t look good when Zito struck out Eric Young, Barmes and Troy Tulowitzki to open the game.
That got a sellout crowd of 41,200 jumping. The fans leaped out of their seats in the second when third baseman Pablo Sandoval launched a solo homer off Rockies starter Jason Marquis to lead off the inning. When the ball finally came out of orbit, it landed in McCovey Cove. It was the 50th home run by a Giant to splashdown there. It was the second time this season Sandoval did it, the last coming July 30 vs. Philadelphia’s Rodrigo Lopez.
Marquis, searching for his 15th victory, got roughed up in his six innings. He gave up five runs on nine hits.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
