DENVER — Despite two game-tying hits from Brandon Crawford, the Giants mustered little else offensively in the mile-high hitter’s haven of Coors Field for the second straight night and, likewise, dropped their second straight game here.
San Francisco went down 1-2-3 with Thairo Estrada standing on second base in the top of the 10th, before Brendan Rodgers walked them off in the bottom half with a single to center off Camilo Doval, sending the Giants to their fourth consecutive loss, 4-3, and two games under .500.
Doval, who was pitching his second inning after an easy ninth, intentionally walked Charlie Blackmon to get to Rodgers, who drove home Wynton Bernard from second, aided by Austin Slater booting the ball away as he tried to come up firing.
Crawford tied the score once, with a home run into the Rockies’ bullpen in the seventh inning. With the Giants down to their final out two frames later, he did it again. Colorado closer Daniel Bard fell into a 3-1 count, and Crawford lined the next pitch down the left-field line to drive home Slater, who swiped second base after entering as a pinch-runner for Tommy La Stella, who extended the game with a two-out, pinch-hit single.
Before the ninth-inning rally against Bard, who has been one of the most effective closers in the majors, the Giants had mustered little else for the first eight innings, mirroring their same early offensive struggles from Friday’s series-opening loss.
Besides solo shots from Crawford and catcher Joey Bart, the Giants had only one other hit through the first eight innings Saturday. La Stella’s pinch-hit single with two outs in the ninth inning prevented San Francisco from matching its fewest hits in any two-game stretch at this ballpark in its 27-year history, after they managed only five on Friday.
After running a winning streak against the Rockies to 12 games earlier this season, dating back to 2021, the Giants have now dropped consecutive series to Colorado. In their past 20 games against NL West foes, the Giants are 3-17.
Whatever momentum that was gained during their five-game winning streak has been lost on this four-game skid.
Alex Cobb, at least, appeared unaffected by the mile-high conditions, becoming only the second Giants starter this season and the 10th dating back to 2018 to allow three or fewer runs while completing at least six innings.
Cobb recorded the second out of the seventh inning by fielding a hard comebacker and catching Wynton Bernard between third and home, but Bernard’s RBI single earlier in the inning had already plated the go-ahead run.
Rockies rookie Ryan Feltner, who took a 6.39 ERA into Saturday’s start, limited the Giants to one run, two hits and four total base runners through six innings, the second straight night San Francisco has mustered little against a starting pitcher without much pedigree.
The Giants, who struggled so mightily against Feltner that it prompted Jon Miller to wonder on the radio call if third base coach Mark Hallberg was getting lonely, got on the board and then tied the game with a pair of home runs.
Leading off the sixth inning, Bart turned on a high fastball and unleashed a 419-foot home run that landed about a dozen rows up in the left-field bleachers, which tied the score at 1 and amounted to the Giants’ only damage on Feltner.
With Feltner out of the game to start the seventh, Crawford launched a game-tying shot off reliever Dinelson Lamet into the Rockies’ bullpen, only the latest in the veteran shortstop’s mile-high escapades.
The homer was Crawford’s 10th at Coors Field since 2019, breaking a tie with the Dodgers’ Max Muncy for the most by a visiting player. Mike Yastrzemski, who owns a higher OPS here than any player besides Miguel Cabrera (1.213 entering Saturday), went hitless in five at-bats out of the leadoff spot, including a ground-out to end the top of the 10th.
After being shifted to eighth in the order — the lowest he has batted against a right-handed starter since 2013 — Brandon Belt led off extra innings with Thairo Estrada on second base but struck out swinging, the first of three straight outs in the top of the 10th.
