Past & Present: We left our brooms in San Francisco

It is the rarest of things for the Rockies, almost like seeing a double rainbow, but there was a sweep of the Giants in San Francisco this weekend, something that has happened just two other times in franchise history. RhodeIslandRoxFan has an excellent breakdown of how this weekend's sweep happened, as for the other two, here's how they went down.

May 25-27, 2007

Game 1: Rockies 5, Giants 3

The Giants got all three of their runs in the first inning against Rockies starter Jason Hirsh, who gave up three hits and walked a pair in the inning, putting the Rockies in a 3-0 hole early. However, Hirsh allowed just two hits in his next five innings of work, keeping the Rockies in the game.

The offense was shut down by Matt Cain for the first six innings, but they finally got to the Giants starter in the seventh. With one out, Cain walked Brad Hawpe and gave up a single to Troy Tulowitzki before Ryan Spilborghs' RBI single chased Cain from the game holding a 3-1 lead. Reliever Brad Hennessey gave up a run-scoring single to Willy Taveras with his team leading 3-2. The Rockies then tied the game in the eighth when Hawpe doubled home Matt Holliday.

Colorado took the lead against Armando Benitez in the ninth when Kazuo Matsui drove in Steve Finley with a base hit, stole second and scored on a Holliday single to make it 5-3 Rockies. Brian Fuentes gave up a hit in the ninth, but preserved the win.

Game 2: Rockies 6, Giants 1

Only an RBI infield single from opposing pitcher Matt Morris in the second inning prevented Aaron Cook from throwing a complete game shutout in this one. Cook did go the distance, allowing just one run on five hits with four walks and two strikeouts. In very Aaron Cook fashion, 19 of the 27 outs he recorded came via the ground ball.

Offensively, the Rockies took advantage of a pair of Giants errors that led to four unearned runs, scoring six against Morris in seven innings of work. Matt Holliday was 2-for-5 with three RBIs and Garrett Atkins added a pair of doubles in the win.

Game 3: Rockies 6, Giants 4 (10 innings)

It took extra innings for the Rockies to earn their first ever sweep in San Francisco, because of course it did. Taylor Buchholz made one of his eight career starts for the Rockies, allowing three runs on six hits in seven innings with five strikeouts.

A three-run fifth for the Rockies, courtesy of Matt Holliday's two-run triple and an RBI single from Todd Helton, broke a 1-1 tie and chased Giants starter Noah Lowry from the game with the Rockies holding a 4-1 lead. San Francisco got back into the game in the sixth thanks to a two-run home run from Barry Bonds, the 746th of his career. The Giants tied the game in the eighth when Bengie Molina's single against LaTroy Hawkins scored Fred Lewis.

The Rockies took the lead in the 10th thanks to an RBI single from Troy Tulowitzki that scored Kazuo Matsui, who was pinch-running for Helton. Tulowitzki then scored on Chris Iannetta's double. Brian Fuentes earned his second save in the bottom of the inning, securing the sweep for the eventual NL champs.

September 23-25, 2008

Game 1: Rockies 9, Giants 4

In the series opener, the Rockies beat up Tim Lincecum, who was on his way to winning his first Cy Young Award. Lincecum gave up six runs on six hits in 4 1/3 innings, walking five and striking out nine.

The top two hitters in the Rockies order, Seth Smith and Troy Tulowitzki, combined to go 7-for-10 in the game with a double and a pair of home runs, scoring four runs and driving in five on the day. Joe Koshansky also drove in a pair of runs with a double.

All of the offense came in support of Ubaldo Jimenez, who allowed three runs on four hits in six innings to earn his 12th win of the 2008 season.

Game 2: Rockies 15, Giants 6

Yes, there was a game played at AT&T Park in which the Rockies and Giants combined to score 21 runs on 33 hits. This was not at Coors Field. The abundance of offense was likely due to the fact that  the two starting pitchers were Livan Hernandez and Jonathan Sanchez, neither of them exactly ace material in 2008.

The Rockies had 18 hits in the day, including home runs from Clint Barmes, Garrett Atkins and Jeff Baker. Barmes' home run was one of four hits on the day for him, he also scored four times, drove in four and stole two bases. Have a day, Barmy.

Despite giving up five runs and a cool dozen hits, Hernandez managed to last seven innings and have his 13th win of the season fall into his lap.

Game 3: Rockies 3, Giants 1

After the slugfests in the previous two games of the series, Jorge De La Rosa and Barry Zito decided to have a good, old-fashioned pitchers' duel in the series finale.

De La Rosa was especially impressive, pitching seven shutout innings, allowing just three hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. He also drove home Ryan Spilborghs with a single in the fourth inning for the Rockies' second run, giving Colorado a 2-0 lead. The Rockies got run number three in the seventh when Clint Barmes homered for the second straight day.

The Giants got a run in the eighth on a John Bowker infield single, but could not complete the comeback as Manny Corpas and Brian Fuentes finished off the sweep.