SAN FRANCISCO -- Austin Gomber kept his infielders busy in the bottom of the fourth inning, but not in the way they're accustomed to. Three different Colorado Rockies infielders caught a pop-up in the quick inning, a sign that Gomber was on his game, but also that this Giants lineup is on fumes right now.
A night of weary swings produced just two runs off a lefty who entered with a 6.64 ERA. The 5-2 loss was the Giants' eighth in the last 11 games, and one column basically tells the whole story. Here are their runs scored during that stretch: 2, 3, 1, 1, 5, 1, 4, 5, 0, 2, 0.
The latest lackluster performance came against a team that had given up an average of eight runs per game over its last 20, but the only damage from the Giants came on Brandon Crawford's laser into the arcade that briefly tied the game.
"That was arguably (Gomber's) best outing, and a lot of that is he felt like his fastball was working and he was relying on it and we weren't able to make the adjustment as a team soon enough," manager Gabe Kapler said.
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The offensive effort led to the first loss to the Rockies since last August. The Giants had won 11 straight in the series. The Rockies had lost 10 straight games on the road.
--- Ross Stripling paid for a mistake to Ryan McMahon, but he showed enough to stay in the rotation mix and got stretched out to 65 pitches. Stripling said he'll go home to Texas during the break and throw an extended bullpen session off a mound there so that he can stay built up, which likely will be necessary.
Before the game, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said the Giants want to have a consistent five-man rotation in the second half. Their plan is to have Stripling be a part of the mix.
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"I expect him to have a big second half for us," Kapler said. "This is a quality major league starting pitcher who had success in a very, very challenging division (in the AL East) and has only worked since then. It's my belief that Ross is going to be meaningful in big starts for us down the stretch."
Stripling has a 6.37 ERA in seven starts and five relief appearances as a Giant, but he has thrown the ball better since coming off the IL. He said he's eager to turn the page, and he's likely to start one of the first games of the second half when the Giants visit Pittsburgh next weekend.
"It's not one I'll tell my grandkids about," Stripling said of the first half of the season. "But I feel like I'm trending in the right direction."
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--- Crawford is climbing some franchise leaderboards in year 13. His homer was his 144th, moving him past Rich Aurilia and Kevin Mitchell on the franchise leaderboard. He also nudged past Buster Posey on the RBI leaderboard.
Crawford should also soon pass Posey in doubles and walks, and he needs just two extra-base hits to catch Brandon Belt for fourth in San Francisco Giants history in extra-base hits.
