Pride for 3rd in NL West

Rockies show Giants who's boss with 2nd blowout

Henry Schulman - San Francisco Chronicle (SFGate)
Just cry "uncle," Giants. If Colorado wants third place that badly, just hand it over.

Wait a sec. The Giants are doing that.

The Rockies have rolled into China Basin like a pride of lions hunting one-legged zebras and all but secured third place in the National League West with two lopsided victories. In the second on Wednesday night, they won 15-6 with Jonathan Sanchez and Kevin Correia each surrendering seven runs.

Only once in nine seasons have the Giants allowed more runs in their bayside park, a 16-4 loss to Florida in 2005.

"I didn't want to finish the season like that," said Sanchez (9-12). "I wanted to get double-digit wins and it turned the other way."

The Giants fell to 70-88, making a 90-loss season that much tougher to avoid, and assured they will lose the season series against Colorado.

After the 15th Rockies run scored, manager Bruce Bochy pulled all tenured players from the game. In the seventh inning, he had nine rookies on the field.

Some of them had good games. Nate Schierholtz hit three doubles. Eugenio Velez doubled twice, singled and scored twice on singles by Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval. John Bowker doubled and also hit his first big-league home run since July 2, his 10th of the year. Bochy even mined his missing-persons list and got Steve Holm into the game. The third-string catcher doubled and scored.

Bochy said he did not notice he had nine rookies on the field. Bowker did not either.

"It's almost like looking toward the future, a sense of camaraderie," said Billy Sadler, who was on the mound. "All of us have played together for a long time. To be in the big leagues playing together, all nine of us, was pretty cool."

The Rockies revved their engines with seven runs in 31/3 innings against Sanchez in what might have been his final start with the Giants.

The organization realizes it might have to dip into its pitching stock to trade for offense this winter and no doubt will try to keep Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain while offering pitching prospects and secondary arms such as Sanchez. Then again, Sanchez's second half might scare potential suitors. In 10 starts after the break he went 1-7 with a 7.47 ERA, compared with 8-5, 3.97 in the first half.

Sanchez pitched 158 innings this year after working mostly in relief the past two seasons. Bochy said he did not believe fatigue became a factor, saying Sanchez simply was not locating his pitches.

"I don't think innings had anything to do with it," Bochy said. "He just wasn't good tonight."

Asked the fatigue question, Sanchez said he was not sure and pledged to work harder this winter to gain strength for a long year in the rotation.

The Rockies feasted on Sanchez in three of the four innings in which he appeared. Clint Barmes was ruthless, with a single to start the game, a solo homer in the second inning and a two-run double in the fourth.

Barmes could have had a cycle by the fifth but settled for an RBI single and his fourth RBI in a six-run inning against Correia. It was hard to say what was worse, Garrett Atkins' three-run homer or a bunt single by the big-boy pitcher Livan Hernandez.

Chris Iannetta had a two-run single in a three-run first against Sanchez. Even before that hit, the catcher had a .391 lifetime average against the Giants, including .486 at China Basin. The Giants either need to solve this guy or acquire him.