SAN FRANCISCO _ The San Francisco Giants do not have to win every time Madison Bumgarner takes the mound. It's not as if he is propping up a makeshift rotation all by himself.
They did not even need Bumgarner to be a stopper Thursday night against the Colorado Rockies. They had just taken their first series of the season, winning two of three against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
But when you don't ask your ace to be a stopper, you ask him to help you build momentum. And the Giants got thrown in reverse in a 3-1 loss at AT&T Park.
They are 0-3 in Bumgarner's starts _ the first time that has happened to start a season since he was an overgrown 21-year-old in 2011.
And their ninth-inning rallies continue to provide no more than a tease. They loaded the bases on infield hits from Joe Panik and Hunter Pence off Rockies closer Greg Holland, followed by a disciplined walk from Conor Gillaspie. But Eduardo Nunez sharply grounded into a double play for a team that continues to look for its first successful ninth-inning comeback since May of 2015. They were 0-62 when trailing after eight innings last season.
Bumgarner met the minimum standards of a quality start, giving up three runs in six innings, but the night didn't come close to his own personal standards. He paid for a mistake pitch that Trevor Story pounded for a two-run home run in the fourth inning. The Rockies added a run when they strung together three singles in the sixth.
The bigger issue was a Giants lineup that lacked Buster Posey (concussion list) and Brandon Crawford, who had traveled to Los Angeles late Wednesday night because of a family emergency.
They managed just one hit through the first six innings, and a foot injury to Rockies opening-day starter Jonathan Gray might have worked against them. It brought left-handed long man Chris Rusin out of the bullpen in the fourth inning to face a lineup with five left-handed batters.
Not even Bumgarner's bat could resuscitate the Giants. He popped up and grounded out. Then again, they also lost the opener in Arizona when he hit a pair of home runs.
Story put the Rockies on the board in the fourth inning. The shortstop might have been the hottest player in the major leagues as a rookie at the start of last season, when he hit seven home runs in the first six games, but he entered Thursday with a .129 average. His shot off Bumgarner was his first of the season.
Bumgarner struck out eight in six innings, issued just one walk, and came within inches of holding the Rockies to just the two runs. But Mark Reynolds' foul fly was just a step beyond third baseman Gillaspie's diving attempt, and Reynolds followed with an RBI single up the middle.
The Giants snapped the shutout in the seventh after Brandon Belt hit a leadoff single that snapped an 0-for-18 streak in which he scalded plenty of outs. He almost got denied again by Story's diving attempt up the middle, but the shortstop couldn't hold onto the ball.
Pence replaced Belt with a fielder's choice, took third on Gillaspie's single and scored on Nunez's sacrifice fly.
The replay crew was another rally killer. It appeared that Nunez reached to begin the fifth inning when third baseman Nolan Arenado made a wide throw that pulled Reynolds off first base. But umpire Mike Everitt called Nunez out, and after a two-minute review, the replay official determined that video evidence was inconclusive.
Right-hander Neil Ramirez threw two of the bullpen's three scoreless innings to give the Giants a chance to rally, and they did. They just couldn't complete it.
