Randy Winn and Fred Lewis hit two-out RBI singles during San Francisco's four-run rally in the seventh inning and the host Giants kept the Los Angeles Dodgers out of first place in the NL West with a 5-2 comeback victory last night.
Bengie Molina added a two-run double for the Giants, who tagged the Dodgers' bullpen shortly after starter Chan Ho Park was pulled for a pinch-hitter with a 2-1 lead.
Park and Barry Zito staged an unlikely pitchers' duel over the first six innings. Park threw six innings of three-hit ball while Zito (4-12) struck out 10 in perhaps the best start of his woeful season.
“That's kind of the guy that I remember being,” said Zito (USDHS). “Sometimes you want to make the fans happy, but you can't want it too much, because you start pressing. You've just got to try to be yourself.”
Six straight Giants reached base with two outs in the seventh, starting with Lewis' tying single off Brian Falkenborg (0-1). After Ray Durham walked, Winn drove home Lewis with a high-bouncing grounder up the middle that barely eluded second baseman Jeff Kent. Molina then doubled down the left-field line off Cory Wade.
With the Arizona Diamondbacks' loss to the Padres, Los Angeles (42-45) could have moved into first place for the first time since the season's opening week. Instead, the Dodgers' winning streak was stopped at four games as they failed to get within one game of .500 for the first time since June 2.
Brian Wilson got four outs for his 24th save.
ROCKIES 12, MARLINS 6: In Denver, Matt Holliday homered and drove in four runs and Joe Koshansky hit his first major league homer as the injury-riddled Rockies won their season-best fifth straight. One night after hitting six homers in an epic 18-17 win over the Marlins, the Rockies went deep four more times. Chris Iannetta and Brad Hawpe also connected for Colorado, which has its longest winning streak since last fall's unfathomable 21-1 run-up to the World Series. Jorge De La Rosa (3-4) scattered six hits and allowed three earned runs over five-plus innings for the Rockies.
