DENVER - This had all the makings of so many past nights at Coors Field. The game was long. The weather didn't cooperate. Nolan Arenado scored a big run. The Giants lost.
Arenado scored on Chris Iannetta's single up the middle in the bottom of the 10th, giving the Rockies a 6-5 win. The Giants dropped to 1-5 on this three-city road trip.
After a 55-minute rain-and-hail delay, the teams combined for five runs in the first inning. This looked like it would be a classic Coors shootout, but the pitching settled down from there.
With the score tied at five, the Giants loaded the bases in the top of the ninth on two walks and a hit-by-pitch, but Wade Davis got Brandon Belt to line out softly to second. They opened the 10th with back-to-back singles, but Austin Jackson couldn't get a bunt down and three straight groundouts ended the frame.
Arenado drew a walk from Hunter Strickland in the bottom of the 10th and alertly took second on a deep fly to center. He went to third on Ian Desmond's liner to right that Andrew McCutchen couldn't quite glove and scored when Kelby Tomlinson couldn't knock down Iannetta's slow roller.
Here's what else you need to know from the first night at Coors Field this season…
-- It was an interesting evening for rookie Andy Suarez. He gave up a three-run bomb in the first and looked headed for disaster. But then he figured something out, repeatedly pounding the corner on his glove side. Suarez struck out six of the final eight batters he faced before being lifted for a pinch-hitter. He allowed four runs - three earned - in five innings. That's serviceable for a first start at Coors Field.
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-- Evan Longoria had a two-run double in the first and brought Brandon Belt home with a double in the sixth. He has 16 of them on the year, tied for the most in the National League. The Giants got 26 doubles from all their third basemen combined last season.
-- Gorkys Hernandez hit a solo shot to lead off the third. It was his sixth, which puts him behind only Belt and Longoria on this roster. That's one surprise. Here's another: He's batting .321.
-- Gregor Blanco came on in the eighth to play left for Mac Williamson. He did the same when the Giants had the lead in Chicago. As you consider upcoming roster moves with Hunter Pence and the pitching staff and all that, it's worth remembering that Bruce Bochy likes having Blanco as his late-innings defensive replacement.
