SAN FRANCISCO — Even as they lost the war Monday night, the San Francisco Giants were proud to win another small battle.
Brandon Belt drove in Angel Pagan from third base with the game-winning run with one out in the 10th inning as the Giants, moments after having been formally eliminated from the National League West race, outlasted the Colorado Rockies 3-2.
“That was going to happen. We knew it,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 8-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks officially took the West crown off the heads of his defending champions. “But it’s important that we go out there every day, play our best ball and finish this off on a positive note.”
The walk-off win was the Giants’ second in two days and 11th of the season amid just 65 total victories.
The loss, meanwhile, was the Rockies’ sixth in seven games in San Francisco this season and came despite another strong road effort by starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin, who left after seven innings with Colorado up 2-1.
The Giants tied the game with an unearned run off Matt Belisle in the eighth, then got to Colorado’s fourth pitcher, Adam Ottavino (1-3), for the game-winner in the 10th.
Pagan, whose single ended Sunday’s dramatic win over Arizona, got the winning uprising going this time with a one-out single, his third hit of the game. He took third on Marco Scutaro’s two-strike single to right field, setting up Belt, who smacked a two-strike liner over the head of a drawn-in Rockies left fielder Charlie Culberson.
“The whole at-bat, I was looking for something up in the zone,” said Belt, recognizing a sacrifice fly would end the game. “Once I got two strikes, I didn’t really care what happened. I just wanted to put the ball in play.”
Belt, whose walk-off hit was his second of the season, said the club already is looking ahead to next season.
“We need to finish as strong as we can,” he claimed. “I think there’s momentum we can gain that we could carry into next season.”
Bochy agreed, while also taking time to congratulate the rival Dodgers.
“Believe me, we’re not happy with how things have gone. We’re disappointed with where we’re at right now,” he said. “But you look at the Dodgers and the run they went on. You tip your cap.
“It just shows every year is different. Those guys clicked. It’s a credit to them how they righted the ship and started playing so well.”
Santiago Casilla (6-2) earned the win after pitching around a pair of Rockies hits in the top of the 10th.
Belt also provided the game-tying hit, a first-pitch double in the eighth. The drive into the right-field corner again scored Pagan, who reached second base when his chopper to third base — ruled a single — was thrown past first baseman Ryan Wheeler by Nolan Arenado.
Chacin, who entered the game with the fourth-best road ERA in the major leagues (2.19), improved on both the mark and the standing after allowing just one run on four hits in seven innings. His road ERA in 12 starts dropped to 2.10, which places him atop the list, just ahead of Kansas City’s James Shields (2.11).
Chacin allowed one run or fewer for the sixth time in a road outing this season. He struck out five and walked one.
The only run he allowed came on Buster Posey’s solo home run, his 15th, to lead off the second inning.
“We’ve struggled to score on the road and that’s been the trend here. It’s something we’re trying to solve,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss noted. “When you score two runs like we’ve done a handful of times already on this trip, it’s going to be tough to win games, and you’re asking a lot out of your pitching staff.”
Chacin was dueled nearly pitch-for-pitch by the Giants’ Tim Lincecum, who also got a no-decision to show for a quality start. He allowed two runs on seven hits in a season-best eight innings, walking one and striking out three.
NOTES: Lincecum had never previously in his career pitched as many as eight innings in a game and struck out as few as three. … Posey’s home run was just his second since the All-Star break. … Rockies 2B D.J. LeMahieu extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a first-inning single. He also doubled and scored Colorado’s second run in the third inning, which stood as the difference in the game until the eighth. … Despite beginning the night 19 1/2 games out of the division lead with three weeks to play, the Giants started the same eight position players as they did in the championship-winning Game 4 of the World Series last October. … The Rockies, meanwhile, were without CF Dexter Fowler (sore knee), 1B Todd Helton (sick) and C Wilin Rosario (painful tooth). LF Carlos Gonzalez, unable to bat because of a swollen finger, was used as a late-game defensive replacement, then left the game for a pinch-hitter when his spot in the lineup came up in the top of the 10th.