Bouncing back after an exceedingly depressing series often defines the ultimate success of a team when the season comes to an end. Although it will be an arduous battle, the San Francisco Giants must rebound from the recent sweep they endured against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

Their first challenge will reside in Coors Field against the Colorado Rockies. With the Giants wasting their two starting aces on Tuesday and Wednesday without earning a victory, the orange and black put their faith in Ryan Vogelsong to get them back on track. The Rockies sent out another starter that has had ups and downs thus far in the season in the form of Chris Rusin.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned for the veteran Vogelsong and his ball club. In the first inning alone he gave up four early runs to continue the woes for the Giants. The one bright spot for the Rockies this season has been Carlos Gonzalez and he continued his solid year with a home run to score a pair. The next two runs came via a single from Wilin Rosario to score Nolan Arenado and DJ LeMahieu. When the inning finally ended, Vogelsong had already given up six hits and the Rockies led 4-0. To put this number into perspective, in Clayton Kershaw's complete game last night he gave up six hits throughout the entire nine innings.

The Giants made an effort to contest the early lead in the third by plating two runs of their own. Young outfielder Juan Perez led off with a double and then Vogelsong continued the trend of Giant pitchers that can hit with his first career home run.

Although the Giants started their climb to a win, another setback struck in the bottom of the third. Rosario picked up his third RBI of the night in a first and third situation in which he grounded into a double play, but got the run across. This run though was not counted against Vogelsong's ERA as the run was ultimately recorded as unearned as Matt Duffy received a throwing error previously in the inning.

Now down three runs, the Giants seemed to settle into a dark fog as it all went down hill from there. To push Vogelsong out of the game in only the fourth, three straight hits, including a triple from Charlie Blackmon, scored another two runs. In to replace him came normally dependable George Kontos. On this occasion, however, Kontos faired no better than his predecessor. Like Vogelsong, he gave up a two-run home run to Gonzalez to stomp out any hope that remained. By the end of four inning, Colorado has broken the game open with a 9-2 lead.

Though the game was seemingly lost, the at-bats still counted against the Giant hitters so they kept their foot lightly on the gas pedal by scoring one run the rest of the way. Similar to the RBI Rosario collected in the third, Matt Duffy grounded into a double play but managed to score the run from third. Despite this positive shift, the Giants failed to get any offense going the rest of the way.

To add insult to injury, another home run pierced the spirits of the Giants in the eighth. In to make his Major League debut with the Giants was reliever Cody Hall, who struggled severely. He had a solid first inning against the bottom of the order, but when it came around to CarGo and Arenado, things got dicey. He got the first two outs in the eighth but couldn't finish the inning as Gonzalez picked up his fourth hit of the night with a single. If there were another player that the Rockies could hang their hat on despite the rough season, it would be Nolan Arenado. The All-Star third baseman has provided a lift at the plate as well as in the field and showed his potential by homering for the 34th time to extend the lead to 11-3. This was the score the game ended with as the Giants failed to make a dent in the lead.

For the second night in a row, the Giants watched helplessly as the opposing pitcher threw a complete game. Rusin allowed six hits and a walk in his best start of the 2015 campaign. This loss also represents the Giants' sixth loss in a row. The scary truth behind this game was that the Giants struggled in all dimensions of the game. The pitching was awful and the offense was lack luster.

Tomorrow Chris Heston (11-8, 3.56 ERA) will look to keep his sinker low and bounce back from a difficult start his last time out. The focus for the Giants, however, should be their offense as Kelby Tomlinson was the only man to get two hits in the game Thursday. The three, four and five hitters combined to go 0-for-12 which gives their team no chance to win. Duffy, Posey and Byrd will need to resurrect from their slump graves to get their ball club out of this six game skid.

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About the author
Kyle Botermans
My name is Kyle Botermans and I'm a senior in High School in a small town in Southern Oregon. Eventually I plan to become an energy resource engineer, but in the mean time I want to explore my strengths in writing about the teams I love: the San Francisco Giants and 49ers.