There was no way that the Giants were going to escape Colorado without feeling the wrath of the Mullett! Troy Tulowitski was held in check the first game, but he has had a September that not many others have had. He got revenge tonight against the Giants by going 4-5 with 5 RBI, including the game-winning hit in the 10th. He scorched a ball just beyond the reach of shortstop Juan Uribe. It was hit so hard that Uribe hardly even had a chance to move to his right and it was by him and rolling into the left-center field gap. Pat Burrell slid to cut off the ball and relayed it to Uribe, but Carlos Gonzalez, who was on first base from an infield hit earlier, easily beat Uribe's throw home for the winning run. The Rockies celebrated like they just won the World Series, as they should have. This was their make or break game. If they lost this game, they would've fell 5 1/2 games behind the Giants with 8 games left. This win kept them in the race and gave them hope in these remaining games.
This game felt like a pre-humidor Coors Field game. It's funny and ironic to me just one night after Tim Lincecum got caught on camera talking about the juiced balls in Denver, we had an old-school game like this. The final was 10-9 in 10 innings, and it was back and forth all game. The last team to score was going to win, and that just happened to be the Rockies tonight.
The scoring for both teams began in the first inning, as Freddy Sanchez opened the scoring with his sixth home run of the year, an opposite-field drive to right field. The Rockies responded with a two-run, two-out rally as Gonzalez singled and Tulowitzki walked before Melvin Mora scored them with a bloop double inside the right-field line.
In the top of the 3rd, the Giants took a 3-2 lead when they hit 2 solo homers, one by lead-off hitter Andres Torres (15) and one by Giants leading homerun hitter Aubrey Huff (26). It was Torres' first start since having an appendectomy just 13 days ago.
With the Giants leading 4-2 in the fifth, Colorado scored four runs to take the lead. With 1 out, Jay Payton and Carlos Gonzalez hit back to back triples off starter Barry Zito. The Gonzalez triple was a deep drive to right-center field that Cody Ross, who just replaced Andres Torres, couldn't get to. Torres caught a ball the inning before that was hit in almost the exact spot as Gonzalez' triple, but after that long run, he felt discomfort from his still healing surgery wounds. Thats why Bochy took him out.
With the score 4-3 Giants and Troy Tulowitski up, Chris Ray came in to relace Zito. I personally thought that Bochy should've left Zito in there and walked Tulowitski to try for an inning ending double play, but it didn't happen. Bochy's move ended up not working out at all. Tulo crushed a 2 run homer to left, followed by Melvin Mora hitting the third triple of the inning. Dan Runzler relieved Ray and was one strike away from escaping the inning when Chris Iannetta stroked an RBI single. 6-4 Rockies.
The Giants battled right back in the 6th. They had six consecutive hits, the first five which came off Esmil Rogers, who gave up singles by Uribe and Mike Fontenot to start the inning. Pinch-hitter Travis Ishikawa scored Uribe with an opposite-field single to left that he just lofted out there. Cody Ross followed with his second home run as a Giant, which gave the Gs an 8-6 lead. Freddy Sanchez doubled, finishing Rogers, and scored on Octavio Dotel's wild pitch. 9-6 Giants.
San Francisco's bullpen, which had allowed two earned runs in 51 innings spanning September's first 21 games, finally faltered in the eighth as it failed to protect a 9-7 lead.
Pinch-hitter Dexter Fowler led off with a single against Jeremy Affeldt. Sergio Romo replaced Affeldt and struck out Jonathan Herrera, but with left-handed pinch-hitter Jason Giambi due up, Bochy opted for lefty specialist Javier Lopez. Lopez broke even, surrendering a single to Giambi before striking out Gonzalez.
Bochy summoned Wilson, who had converted nine of 10 save opportunities of four outs or more this season. Make that nine of 11. Tulowitzki doubled off the right-field wall on a 1-1 fastball, scoring Fowler and pinch-runner Clint Barmes to tie the score. It was Wilson's 5th blown save of the year.
That blow fed Tulowitzki's confidence when he faced Wilson in the 10th.
"Anytime you have success off a guy your first at-bat, you like your chances the next at-bat," Tulowitzki said. "I thought he was going to stay away from his fastball because I barreled it up. I was thinking he was going to go slider-cutter and that's what he did. The whole at-bat, it was cutters. It was a decent pitch. It started in and came at me, but I put a good swing on it."
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