Rockies 4, Giants 2

The Giants have experienced their fair share of crushing defeats, but today's loss takes the cake. After yesterday's debacle, in which they squandered a 6-1 lead, the Giants had their ace on the hill today with the chance to take the edge in this series. The Giants' record after scoring first has been stellar, but as the past two games have shown, no lead is safe against the Rockies, whose roster features 7 players with double-digit homeruns.

No one will welcome the fog and cooler temperatures of San Francisco more than Tim Lincecum, who had his second straight shaky outing on the road. He limited the damage to three runs, but he clearly was not himself today, as evidenced by his erratic command. 5 walks is absolutely inexcusable in any outing, but especially at Coors Field against the Rockies offense. Seth Smith's homerun to give Rockies the lead in the 7th inning came after...you guessed it...a walk to Omar Quintanilla, who's hitting a paltry .167. Lincecum has uncharacteristically issued 8 walks in his last 13 innings. Whatever mechanical problems Lincecum is having now, he needs to get them fixed before his next start on Friday against the same Rockies. With the Giants so reliant on their starting pitching, they NEED to win every game that Lincecum starts.

When Edgar Renteria is providing your team's entire offensive production, you know you have a problem. Sure, it was great to see him go deep to the opposite field for his first homerun since April 24th, but the fact that he was the sole source of offense demonstrates how badly everyone else looked today against Ubaldo Jiminez. Situational hitting was yet again a problem for the Giants today. They had a chance to promptly tie the score in the top of the 8th, but Sandoval and Molina both couldn't come through. If the Giants miss out on the postseason, it's going to be because of poor situational hitting all across the board.

Tomorrow is the biggest game of the season for the Giants. Any other time, us Giants fans would cringe at the sight of Barry Zito taking the mound in a big game, but he's the Giants' best starter right now, with a 2.36 ERA since the All-Star break. He has to pitch his heart out and the Giants have to have better at-bats in order to avoid falling 4 games behind the Rockies.

Some final thoughts: The Matt Holliday deal has worked out extremely well for the Rockies. Huston Street has 33 saves in 34 chances and Carlos Gonzalez has become a key cog in the Rockies lineup...Did Bengie Molina forget that the count was full on that horrible swing he took on a slider in the dirt with Pablo Sandoval running? Hello Bengie, if you take that pitch a foot outside, you go to 1st base...Many callers on KNBR have suggested putting Aaron Rowand back into the leadoff spot, which is what the Giants did in late May when the team was struggling. Rowand immediately caught fire and the Giants steamrolled into the All-Star break. It might not be a bad idea to reinstate Rowand at the top of the lineup, especially because the Eugenio Velez experiment must stop, but also because the team is scuffling now like they were in May. Who knows; it just might work again.