MEDIA CLIPS – June 28, 2017 Rockies tripped in 14th as Giants walk off By Alex Espinoza and Chris Haft / MLB.com | 4:18 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO -- Though the clock at AT&T Park showed midnight as Monday night's game ended, it was anything but the witching hour for the San Francisco Giants. Denard Span's single to right field scored Gorkys Hernandez to break a 14th-inning tie Tuesday night and lift the San Francisco Giants to a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies. It marked the first time since May 27-28 that the Giants won back-to-back games. "We feel like we've got a lot more energy out there and in the clubhouse," said Giants starter Matt Cain, who surrendered Mark Reynolds' three-run, sixth-inning homer that accounted for Colorado's scoring. With the score even at 3, Hernandez lined a one-out double off the base of the left-field wall off Rockies right- hander Chad Qualls (1-1). "He broke my bat with a sinker, so I knew he'd throw me a slider," Hernandez said. Cory Gearrin (2-2), who worked three innings as the last of six Giants relievers, struck out. Up came Span, who spanked a 1- 0 pitch to right field for his fifth career walk-off hit as the Giants improved to 7-3 in extra innings. Trailing, 3-1, the Giants inched into a tie on Brandon Crawford's sixth-inning sacrifice fly and pinch-hitter Kelby Tomlinson's eighth-inning RBI single. Rockies starter Jeff Hoffman gave his team some much-needed innings, going 6 2/3 while allowing two runs on six hits and three walks with six strikeouts. 1 "For the most part I was able to locate everything," Hoffman said. With the loss, Colorado's losing streak now sits at a season-high seven games. In that span, the Rockies have seen a half-game lead over the Dodgers in the National League West transform into a 5 1/2-game deficit. "It's been a crazy seven days," Reynolds said. "It's been rough. It's baseball, man. Sometimes you get the breaks, sometimes you don't. It seemed like we were getting a bunch of breaks early and a couple of weeks ago; now everything seems to be going the other way." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Not to be overlooked: Gearrin provided long-lasting, effective relief for the Giants with his winning effort. However, he was essentially matched by Colorado left-hander Seth Rusin, who faced the minimum nine batters in his three-inning stint. Rusin bookended his outing with strikeouts in the ninth and 11th and coaxed a double-play grounder in the 10th that stopped a Giants rally before it started. Posey's pickoffs: Giants catcher Buster Posey threw out a pair of Rockies baserunners attempting to steal second base, thus denying Colorado potential offensive breakthroughs. "What a game he had back there," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. Significantly, both plays occurred in extra innings. Posey threw out Ian Desmond, who led off the 11th inning with a single, then erased Charlie Blackmon, who attempted his larceny with two outs in the 12th. "Both teams made some plays," Rockies manager Bud Black said. "It was a pretty clean game, which made the game the way it was." QUOTABLE "Both teams, as the game went on, had some opportunities. In a game like this, where it was well-pitched on the front end by both starters, it usually comes down to the one big hit, or one big play at the end." -- Black, on his team's close loss WHAT'S NEXT Rockies: Colorado will wrap up its three-game set against the Giants by sending southpaw Kyle Freeland to the mound for Wednesday's 1:45 p.m. MT matinee. Freeland is in the midst of a stellar rookie campaign and is 2-0 with a 0.69 ERA in a pair of starts against the Giants this season. Giants: In Wednesday's 12:45 p.m. PT series finale, left-hander Ty Blach will try to recapture the effectiveness he harnessed earlier this season, when he made six quality starts in a stretch of seven outings from April 30 to June 2. 2 Freeland looks to close out month strong By Jonathan Hawthorne / MLB.com | 8:07 AM ET Making his first career start at AT&T Park, Rockies starter Kyle Freeland (8-5, 3.70 ERA) takes the mound Wednesday looking to continue his success in June. He owns a 3.90 ERA in five starts this month. Freeland has taken down the Giants in both of his previous starts this season. He went a season-high seven innings against San Francisco in April, allowing six hits. On the flip side, Giants starter Ty Blach -- making his 13th start in place of Madison Bumgarner -- hopes to end June how it began. He tossed his first Major League shutout June 2. But Blach has struggled with a 9.28 ERA over his last four starts. Last time out, the Mets dispatched Blach after three innings when he allowed 11 hits and seven runs Things to know about this game • Although he has struck out only 20 batters with fastballs over 15 starts, Freeland has retired 139 batters on balls in play against his four- and two-seamers, according to StatCast. That's the third-highest total for any pitcher this year, just behind teammate Antonio Senzatela (142). • Freeland ranks second in total wins, first in road wins and third in road ERA (4.14) among rookies in the Majors. • Wednesday will likely be Giants rookie Jae-Gyun Hwang's first taste of the Majors. The Seoul, South Korea, native hit .287 for Triple-A Sacramento with seven home runs, and the Giants plan to call him up and start him at third base in the series finale. 3 Cramp forces LeMahieu to leave game early By Alex Espinoza / Special to MLB.com | 4:06 AM ET SAN FRANCISCO -- Colorado second baseman DJ LeMahieu exited in the fourth inning of Tuesday's 4-3, 14-inning loss to the Giants after suffering a right groin cramp while trying to beat out a ground ball. The Rockies announced he's day to day. LeMahieu started running awkwardly about 10 feet before reaching the first-base bag but was retired. An athletic trainer came to join LeMahieu as he limped back to the dugout, before he exited the game in the bottom of the inning. "Just felt like it cramped on me," LeMahieu said. "I don't really pull muscles at all, ever, so I don't know what it's supposed to feel like. It just felt like a cramp. It'll be fine." LeMahieu said he dealt with a similar injury within the past two seasons but it never lingered for more than a couple of days. "It doesn't feel as bad as it did last time," LeMahieu said. "It's nothing too serious." Rockies manager Bud Black said he doesn't expect LeMahieu to be in Wednesday's lineup for the series finale against the Giants, though the second baseman said he hopes to get some hitting in before the game. With Thursday's off-day, Black said it's a possibility LeMahieu could be back in the starting nine for Friday's series opener at Arizona. "We're hoping that this will be a quick recovery for him," Black said. "Talking to DJ at the end of the game, talking with our medical staff, we're a little bit optimistic right now. That's a good thing. But we'll see. These things set up differently as you go on." Raimel Tapia took over the No. 2 spot in the order for LeMahieu and was inserted into right field, while Alexi Amarista moved from right field to second base. LeMahieu, an elite defender who won the 2014 National League Gold Glove, is slashing .302/.360/.381 with three homers and 38 RBIs this year. He has played in all 80 contests for the Rockies this season. 4 Rockies bring up outfielder Tauchman By Alex Espinoza / Special to MLB.com | June 27th, 2017 SAN FRANCISCO -- Mike Tauchman's Monday evening got off to a rocky start. He struck out three times in an extra-inning loss for Triple-A Albuquerque in Fresno before getting pulled aside by manager Glenallen Hill. The skipper had a message that was about to make Tauchman's night a lot better. Full Game Coverage "He goes, 'If you do that tomorrow in the big leagues, I'm going to be mad at you,'" Tauchman said. "I kind of just looked at him and he's like, 'Yeah, man.' I said, 'Are you serious right now?' He kind of slid it right in there, but that's his personality." Just like that, Tauchman found out he was Bay Area-bound to join the Rockies. Before Tuesday's contest against the Giants, Colorado officially selected Tauchman's contract from Albuquerque while sending right-handed reliever Jairo Diaz to Triple-A following a one-day MLB stint and moving outfielder David Dahl (rib stress reaction) to the 60-day disabled list. "It's definitely a blessing," Tauchman said. "This team is a real quality team. During my time up in Spring Training you could see that. To be able to be a part of a team that has so many expectations and goals for themselves is a really cool thing." Tauchman was able to enter Tuesday's 4-3, 14-inning loss to the Giants as a pinch-hitter in the 12th inning but only saw one pitch, which he slapped to second base for a groundout in his first MLB at-bat.