Rockies 5, Giants 0
DENVER -- The San Francisco Giants completed a memorably bad road trip Sunday with better defense but another shaky outing from a starting pitcher.
This time, it was Barry Zito, whom the Colorado Rockies knocked out in the sixth on their way to a 5-0 victory.
Juan Nicasio, trying to keep his place in the Rockies' rotation, had his best start of the season, giving up three singles in six innings. The Giants finished with five singles and got just four runners to second base.
Colorado won the final three games of the four-game series and sent the World Series champion Giants back to San Francisco after a 1-5 road trip that began in Toronto.
The Giants were outscored 52-28 on the trip, and their starters went 1-5 with a 9.82 ERA. The longest starts in that span were both 5 2/3 innings, both by Zito, in the first game of the trip and again Sunday.
He dealt with a lot of traffic on the bases at Coors Field, giving up 11 hits -- one double and 10 singles, three of them infield hits -- and two walks. Zito allowed one run in the first and two in the fifth, and two more were charged to him in the sixth. Zito gave up consecutive two-out singles, and Troy Tulowitzki drove in both runners with a bases-loaded single off Jose Mijares.
Nicasio entered the game averaging 18.4 pitches per inning. That lack of economy is why he had pitched six innings in just two of his previous eight starts and seemed to be headed for a stint at Triple-A Colorado Springs.
However, working with veteran catcher Yorvit Torrealba for the first time this season, Nicasio was more efficient and found a pitching groove that had been elusive. He ended the sixth by striking out Brandon Belt on a 3-2 slider in the dirt with runners at second and third. That was Nicasio's 89th and last pitch.
Carlos Gonzalez had a RBI single in the first inning and a run-scoring double in the fifth. Jordan Pacheco drove home Gonzalez with a fifth-inning single.
Rockies center fielder Dexter Fowler went 4-for-5 and scored two runs. Eric Young Jr. and DJ LeMahieu added two hits apiece for Colorado.
Brandon Crawford and Gregor Blanco collected two hits each for San Francisco.
NOTES: Fowler tied his career-high with four hits. It was his third four-hit game and first since May 28, 2012, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Houston Astros. ... Giants CF Angel Pagan did not take the field in the bottom of the fifth due to the flu. ...C Buster Posey and 2B Marco Scutaro were not in the Giants' lineup. Manager Bruce Bochy said both players needed a break, citing the long games here that Posey has caught and the need for Scutaro to rest his sore back and legs. Bochy said he told each player a couple days ago of his plans for Sunday. Scutaro has hit safely in 17 straight games, three shy of the career-high 20-game hitting streak he had last year. ... LeMahieu started at third base for the Rockies. 3B Nolan Arenado had started 19 straight games dating from his big-league debut April 28. Arenado flied out as a sixth-inning pinch hitter. ...In an extended spring training game against Milwaukee on Saturday, Rockies RHP Roy Oswalt gave up a leadoff bunt single and no other hits while throwing five innings with nine strikeouts and no walks on 68 pitches. On Friday, Oswalt will begin a run of five starts for Double-A Tulsa.
