Rockies lose to Giants — 2-1, in 10 innings — on Charlie Blackmon’s error

Somebody had to blink.

It turns out it was right-hander Carlos Estevez and Charlie Blackmon in the Rockies’ excruciating 2-1, 10-inning loss at San Francisco Wednesday night at Oracle Park.

The Giants’ Luis Gonzalez tagged Estevez for a one-out single, and when Blackmon failed to field the ball cleanly in right field, ghost runner Donovan Walton scored from second. Had Blackmon not committed the error, Walton would have been at third base with just one out.

“Charlie charged hard, as he should,” manager Bud Black told reporters in San Francisco. “Whether he looked up at the last minute to see the runner — I haven’t spoken to Charlie — but that’s probably what happened. He probably just peeked, to see where (the runner) was.”

The Rockies wasted an excellent, redemptive start by Antonio Senzatela.

Mixing a wicked slider with an effective changeup, the right-hander held the Giants to one run on six hits. He struck out six, fanning cleanup hitter Joc Pederson three times — twice looking. It was, by far, his best start of the season and the first time he pitched at least six innings since April 29.

“I felt really good about my pitches tonight,” Senzatela told reporters. “I thought we had a really good plan tonight.”

Added Black: “He threw the ball well. He always pitches aggressively with his fastball and he kept the ball down tonight. So it was a well-thrown game for him.”

Nonetheless, the Giants improved to 12-3 vs. Colorado at Oracle Park since the start of the 2021 season. San Francisco has outscored the Rockies 82-38 over that span. Overall, the Giants have won 13 of their last 15 games vs. Colorado.

The Rockies, who snapped a four-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the Giants on Tuesday, have not won back-to-back games since May 4-5 vs. Washington. They have played 31 games without winning consecutive games, tied for the longest such streak in franchise history.  (Also June 18-July 23, 2001).

Blackmon’s fielding error bruised what was an otherwise solid game. The veteran made an amazing defensive play and drove in Colorado’s only run.

In the Giants’ fifth, Blackmon made one of the best throws of his long career to snuff out a San Francisco rally. With one out and Gonzalez on third, Wilmer Flores lined a ball to Blackmon for what looked like a sacrifice fly that would have given the Giants a 2-1 lead.

Instead, Blackmon threw a perfect one-hop strike to catcher Elias Diaz, who tagged out Gonzalez to complete the double play.

Three Rockies relievers — Alex Colome, Tyler Kinley and closer Daniel Bard — combined to blank the Giants for three innings.

Kinley continued spinning his magic. Though Kinley issued a leadoff walk to Gonzalez in the eighth — and Gonzalez advanced to third with a stolen base and a wild pitch — Kinley struck out Pederson to end the threat, forcing Pederson to wear the Golden Sombrero for his four-K night.

Kinley has a 0.75 ERA over 24 innings this season and has yet to serve up a homer.

Colorado took a 1-0 lead in the third, stringing together three consecutive two-out singles by Diaz, Connor Joe and Blackmon, whose hit drove in Diaz from second.

Joe’s single extended his on-base streak to 34 games. Blackmon’s one-out double in the sixth was the 1,500th hit of his career, making him one of just 16 active players to reach that milestone.