With Hearts Pounding, Rockies Beat Giants, Keep NL West Lead

Restricted to two hits in a loss Saturday night, the Colorado Rockies survived a harrowing ninth inning Sunday and converted five hits into a 3-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants before an announced 34,472 in Candlestick Park.

Suddenly struggling offensively, the Rockies aren’t steam-rolling into Dodger Stadium tonight, but they are 14-7 in September and have the same half-game lead on the Dodgers in the National League West that they did when last opening a series in Los Angeles on June 29.

“Nothing’s changed,” Colorado catcher Joe Girardi said. “Play for the rest of eternity and nothing’s changed.”

The clock is ticking on eternity. The Rockies play three in Los Angeles, then four at home against the Giants, who were eliminated from wild-card contention Sunday and will allow Deion Sanders to have ankle surgery this week, meaning the leadoff hitter and center fielder will miss the four-game series at Denver.

“This is why you play,” Girardi said of the Dodger series. “Three intense games, but three games with a half-game lead doesn’t necessarily mean it will be over when it’s over. We still have those four with the Giants.”

There was no quit on the part of San Francisco. Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda had feared a Giant letdown because of their fringe status in the race, raising the ire of Manager Dusty Baker and Colorado counterpart Don Baylor, whose team is 4-3 on the trip.

“We needed the split here,” Baylor said, after getting it. “There’s no way we could afford to lose three of four.

“The Giants play hard all the time. Whoever thinks otherwise should take another look.”

Armando Reynoso, still strengthening his arm after off-season shoulder surgery, provided the lift Sunday with eight strong innings, limiting the Giants to three hits, including a first-inning homer by Barry Bonds.

Now the Rockies will confront the Dodgers with Bill Swift, basically a five-inning pitcher on his way to postseason shoulder surgery; Bret Saberhagen, who will be making only his third start since Aug. 26 and who missed his Thursday turn because of shoulder inflammation, and the new ace, Kevin Ritz (11-10).

It could be another busy series for a bullpen that includes four pitchers with 60 or more appearances and which Baylor turned to with a 3-1 lead at the start of the ninth despite Reynoso’s dominance in his longest stint since he went 7 2/3 on July 8.

“He didn’t make a mistake after the Bonds home run, and he was mixing speeds better than he has all year,” Baylor said. “If he hadn’t thrown 100 pitches and was starting to come up with some of them, I might have let him go out for the ninth, but he had done his job.”

Sanders greeted closer Bruce Ruffin with an infield single as first baseman Andres Galarraga slipped turning back to the bag after backhanding the ground ball. A walk to pinch-hitter David McCarty brought up Bonds with two on and no outs, but Ruffin caught Bonds looking at a called third strike on which he protested so vigorously he was ejected.

Right-hander Curtis Leskanic made his 71st appearance and almost developed a sprained neck as he first twisted to watch center fielder Mike Kingery run down a Matt Williams rocket on the warning track in right center and Dante Bichette catch Mark Carreon’s drive to the warning track in left.

Baylor said he thought both the Williams and Carreon shots were gone. Said Leskanic of the nervous conclusion: “That’s the only way I get on [ESPN] SportsCenter.”

The Rockies hung the loss on Mark Leiter, who had angered them by saying he hoped the Dodgers won the West because the Rockies are arrogant.

This was more important than in-your-face revenge, however.

Leiter hit Vinny Castilla with a one-out pitch in the second, threw two wild pitches that put Castilla on third, and Galarraga, 0 for 14, drilled a game-tying double. Galarraga then stole third--his 12th steal--and was in position to tag and beat a throw from Glenallen Hill on a shallow fly to right by catcher Jayhawk Owens. Third base coach Ron Hassey said he knew Hill would have to make an off-balance throw when he took a step back before making the catch.

“We’ve been aggressive all year--smart aggressive,” said Hassey, who also waved Bichette from second on a soft single to center by Castilla in the sixth, Bichette narrowly beating Sanders’ rainbow to the plate. It was 3-1 and stayed 3-1, though Colorado hearts missed a couple beats in the ninth.