Giants rally to sink Rockies

SAN FRANCISCO -- Things were rolling along nicely for the Rockies until the Giants broke out their biggest offensive display this season.

San Francisco erased a 6-2 deficit Tuesday and defeated Colorado 9-6 before a sellout crowd of 41,910 at AT&T Park.

The Giants came in averaging just 2.7 runs per game and hadn't scored more than five in any of their previous seven contests. However, they banged out 14 hits against four Colorado pitchers and clinched a three-game series that concludes Wednesday afternoon.

Heroes were spread throughout the San Francisco lineup, but the comeback began with an unlikely power display. After Rockies starter Juan Nicasio walked the first two batters in the bottom of the sixth, No. 8 hitter Brandon Crawford went the opposite way for a three-run homer off Adam Ottavino that made it a 6-5 game.

Crawford went deep just four times in 435 at-bats last season, and Tuesday's homer accounted for his first RBIs of 2013.

"It gave us life," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "(Homering the opposite way) isn't easy to do in this ballpark. He's a strong kid. It's something that we needed being down like we were."

Santiago Casilla (1-0) pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the win. Sergio Romo struck out two in the ninth for his fifth save.

The Rockies arrived in San Francisco having won five of their first six games under first-year manager Walt Weiss, but when trouble began Tuesday, they couldn't recover.

Following Crawford's homer, Ottavino allowed singles to pinch hitter Nick Noonan and Angel Pagan. Marco Scutaro bunted the runners into scoring position, and Weiss opted to walk Pablo Sandoval to load the bases with one out for cleanup hitter Hunter Pence.

Matt Belisle relieved Ottavino, and Pence shot a game-tying single into right field.

"I think (Nicasio) got tired quickly in the sixth," Weiss said. "After that, we couldn't piece it together. The Giants kept coming."

The Giants took the lead with a three-run eighth against Belisle (0-1) and Wilton Lopez. Pinch hitter Andres Torres doubled and scored the go-ahead run on Pagan's line single up the middle. Sandoval and Gregor Blanco added RBI hits.

Scutaro, in an early-season slump, had three hits, as did Pagan.

Dexter Fowler and Josh Rutledge each had two RBIs for Colorado.

The Giants' comeback erased what was shaping up as a sure loss for starter Tim Lincecum, who allowed five runs in the second but then stabilized and lasted six innings. He gave up just one more run, a homer by Troy Tulowitzki in the fifth that gave Colorado a 6-2 lead.

"It always feels good when the team wins," said Lincecum, who allowed four hits and four walks while striking out seven. "You go back to the chalkboard after every start, go into refining mode and try to fix those errors. That second inning really was a doozy for me.

"Eliminating the walks and just becoming more competitive probably would have made that inning a lot easier for me."

Lincecum failed to complete as many as six innings in 16 of his 33 starts last season.

The Rockies hurt themselves by issuing six walks, including five by Nicasio. They'd walked just one over their previous two games.

"We're tired of it," Belisle said after the come-from-ahead defeat. "We're ready to battle. (Monday) was a good showing. Today just doesn't taste good."

Nicasio was charged with four runs in five-plus innings.

NOTES: Hector Sanchez spelled Buster Posey behind the plate Tuesday and has now caught both of Lincecum's starts this season. Bochy stopped short of announcing Sanchez is Lincecum's personal catcher but said it's possible he will continue to pair the two together. "It's not a bad thing when the backup catcher always catches the same pitcher," the manager said. ... Scutaro, who is nursing a bad back and began the night hitting .111, is likely to get his first day off Thursday, when the Giants begin a four-game series against the Cubs in Chicago. Noonan would start in his place. ... Rockies left fielder Carlos Gonzalez, who went 0-for-4, has three home runs in 23 at-bats away from Coors Field. He had just nine in 252 road at-bats last season.