Nolan Arenado's home run streak ends as Rockies drop series finale to Giants

Nolan Arenado's streak of six consecutive games with a home run came to an end as the Colorado Rockies dropped the finale of a four-game series against the San Francisco Giants, 7-4, at Coors Field.

Arenado was 0-for-3 with a walk in the game, flying out to right against Giants reliever Hunter Strickland in his final at bat in the seventh inning.

"It was a pretty cool streak," Arenado said. "I never really thought about it at the plate, I just thought about hitting the ball hard."

Giants starter Madison Bumgarner's relative struggles at Coors Field, he entered the game with a 4.05 career ERA at 20th and Blake, continued, but he pitched well enough to keep the Giants in the game, allowing four runs on nine hits in six innings, walking one and striking out three.

"You know you're not going to get a bundle (of runs) against him," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "I thought we made him work, had good at bats, but it's tough to put up a big inning against him."

The Rockies had a couple of chances to put together big innings and got on the board against Bumgarner with their first opportunity, as Jose Reyes and Cristhian Adames started off the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back singles followed by Arenado drawing a walk. Reyes and Adames came around to score on a Carlos Gonzalez fielder's choice and a Wilin Rosario sacrifice fly to left, putting the Rockies up, 2-0.

The second big opportunity for a big inning came in the fifth, as a long top half of the inning may have broken up Bumgarner's rhythm, as he allowed four straight singles to begin the bottom of the fifth, the last of them producing the first two runs batted in of Adames' career, cutting the Rockies' deficit to 7-4. However, Bumgarmer settled back in, getting Arenado to ground into a double play and Carlos Gonzalez to line out to first baseman Brandon Belt to end the threat.

"Whenever he made a mistake, we felt like we hit it hard but right at people," Gonzalez said.

Down 2-0, San Francisco struck back in the top of the second against Rockies starter Yohan Flande. Buster Posey kicked off the inning with a double off the out-of-town scoreboard and was brought home on an RBI ground out by Belt. Posey also provided the Giants' second run in the fourth, doing it all himself this time with a solo home run, the 100th of his career, that tied the game at two.

Things turned sour for Flande in the fifth. After retiring Bumgarner, Flande allowed singles to Gregor Blanco and Kelby Tomlinson, which were cashed in on Matt Duffy's triple. Flande was then pulled from the game after intentionally walking Posey, beginning a parade of seven Rockies relievers.

"I felt like the game was hanging in the balance," Weiss said. "Tried to match up there in the fifth, but it didn't work out. We've got a bunch of guys out there, so I've been using them."

Brooks Brown was the first reliever out of Weiss' bullpen, and he allowed an RBI single to Marlon Byrd, the only batter he faced before giving way to Rex Brothers, who issued a walk to Belt and gave up a two-run double to Brandon Crawford, the seventh straight Giant to reach base in the inning. David Hale finally ended the madness in the fifth  by getting Juan Perez to ground out, leaving the Rockies in a 7-2 hole.

The fifth inning was not only the last for Flande, but his battery mate Nick Hundley as well. The Rockies catcher left the game after the fifth with a neck strain and is day-to-day. Hundley said he felt something in his neck on a foul ball during his at bat in the fourth inning and had trouble turning his head left and right as he caught the top of the fifth. Dustin Garneau caught the final four innings for Colorado.

The rest of the game was left for the bullpens to settle, as the Rockies used Hale, Justin Miller, Christian Friedrich, Gonzalez Germen and Jairo Diaz to pitch the final four scoreless innings and the Giants had Hunter Strickland, Javier Lopez, Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla pitch the final three, retiring nine consecutive Rockies hitters after Bumgarner was pulled after six innings of work.

The Rockies now travel to San Diego for a four-game series with the Padres. First pitch for Monday's series opener is at 2:10 p.m. Mountain time as Kyle Kendrick takes on Ian Kennedy.