By Dennis Georgatos, Associated Press
DENVER — Raimel Tapia hit a run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Colorado Rockies recovered from blowing a late lead to beat the San Francisco Giants 10-9 on Thursday night.
Nolan Arenado doubled three times and drove in four runs, while D.J. LeMahieu added four hits and an RBI for the Rockies. They won for the 10th time in 14 games this month despite allowing the Giants to come back from an eight-run deficit earlier in the game.
Mark Reynolds began the tiebreaking rally by singling off Hunter Strickland (1-2) to start the ninth. After Ian Desmond popped out, pinch-hitter Carlos Gonzalez walked and Tapia followed with a sharp single to right, scoring Reynolds.
Buster Posey connected for his ninth home run, a two-drive in the seventh off reliever Scott Oberg, but then left the game with ankle soreness. Eduardo Nunez also left the game with hamstring tightness after legging out a leadoff infield single in the seventh. The team said both players' status was day to day.
Nick Hundley, who replaced Posey at catcher, had a pinch-hit home run to ignite a five-run eighth. Pitcher Ty Blach, in a rare pinch-hitting appearance, also had an RBI single. Brandon Crawford then drove a 2-2 offering from Jake McGee into the left-field bleachers for a three-run homer that pulled the Giants, who trailed 9-1 earlier, within a run.
Austin Slater singled off closer Greg Holland to lead off the ninth for his fourth hit of the game. Holland fanned Hundley but Denard Span singled and Gorkys Hernandez delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly, marking the first blown save of the season for Holland (1-0). He had converted a franchise-record 23 in a row to start the year.
With Giants position players depleted, Jeff Samardzija became the second Giants pitcher to be used as a pinch-hitter. While he was up, Span broke for the plate when a pitch trickled out of the glove of catcher Tom Murphy. Murphy quickly grabbed it and flipped the ball to Holland covering home, and the sliding Span was tagged out in a bang-bang play that survived replay review.
Giants starter Matt Moore went three innings and allowed eight runs on 11 hits.
The Rockies did most of their damage early, scoring seven runs in the first two innings. Arenado had an RBI double in the first and a two-run double in the second. He had another run-scoring double in the sixth.
Jeff Hoffman allowed one run in five innings.
