EditorsNote: updates fourth graf to reflect Cardinals' Thursday night win
Raimel Tapia lofted a sacrifice fly in the top of the 11th inning, leading the Colorado Rockies past the host San Francisco Giants 5-4 on Thursday night.
Daniel Bard (4-2) pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win. Jairo Diaz pitched the 11th for his fourth save, getting Austin Slater to bounce into a game-ending double play with the tying run at third.
Trevor Cahill (1-2) took the loss.
The loss was damaging to the playoff hopes of the Giants (28-28), who had their two-game win streak snapped. The Giants are now a half-game behind the Cincinnati Reds (29-28) for the top National League wild-card position. The Philadelphia Phillies (28-29) are a half-game behind San Francisco and the Milwaukee Brewers (27-29) are one game back of the Giants in the race for the second and final wild-card berth.
Meanwhile, Colorado (25-31) snapped its two-game losing streak. The Rockies, who started this season 11-3, have faded down the stretch, going 5-11 in their past 16 games. They are guaranteed their second straight losing season.
Giants starter Kevin Gausman allowed eight hits, one walk and two runs in six innings. He struck out nine, his second-highest total this season. Colorado's Chi Chi Gonzalez allowed eight hits, two walks and three runs in 5 1/3.
San Francisco opened the scoring with two runs in the first. Slater drew a leadoff walk, and Alex Dickerson followed with a double. Wilmer Flores stroked an RBI single and Brandon Crawford bashed a run-scoring double that one-hopped the wall in right.
Ryan McMahon, playing third base for injured seven-time Gold Glover Nolan Arenado, helped Colorado escape further trouble when he threw Flores out at the plate on a fielder's choice.
The Giants stretched their lead to 3-0 in the second, using three straight singles to load the bases with no outs and then scoring when Gonzalez bounced a wild pitch. Gonzalez then got the next three batters to end the threat.
Colorado cut its deficit to 3-2 in the fourth. Josh Fuentes hit a leadoff single and scored from first on McMahon's double off the wall in left. McMahon then scored on Tapia's two-out, opposite-field single to left.
The Rockies took a 4-3 lead in the seventh while facing Sam Coonrod. Kevin Pillar hit an infield single, reached third on Trevor Story's ground-rule double and scored on Charlie Blackmon's RBI groundout. Fuentes then drove in Story with a single to center on a full-count sinker that stayed up in the zone.
In the eighth, Brandon Belt hit a leadoff homer off of Mychal Givens, tying the score 4-4.
--Field Level Media
