By Morris Phillips

Whatever your rookie starter thrust into a big situation can do, ours can do better.

The Giants had the combination of Colorado rookie starter Eddie Butler and their own lack of clutch hitting dampen their Opening Day by the Bay in a 2-0 loss to the Rockies.

While Butler was Houdini early, escaping a couple of big jams, the Giants’ rookie starter Chris Heston was as good as he was in first start, going seven innings while allowing single runs in the fourth and seventh innings.

“He gave us all we were asking, pitched deep into the game,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Heston.

Heston has been a godsend, contributing a pair of quality starts in the absence of injured Matt Cain, but he wasn’t expected to be in this situation, a starting assignment in the opener for a club coming off a World Series championship. In fact, the Giants hadn’t had a rookie start a home opener since 1982 when Alan Fowlkes got the call.  Given all the pre-game pomp and circumstance, and the natural expectation that the Giants could summon a big performance to counteract their rough weekend in San Diego, Heston clearly produced.

But Butler was better, just not initially.  In the first, the rookie selected in the first round of the 2012 amateur draft, hit a batter and loaded the bases only to escape harm.  Then in the second, Butler walked two, loaded the bases again but escaped unscathed.  The Giants would go on to strand 12 baserunners, eight of those in the first three innings.

“We just couldn’t get the timely hit.  That was the difference,” Bochy said.

With all the early turbulence, Butler didn’t last as long as Heston, getting the hook in the sixth, but the Colorado bullpen was lights out, shutting down the Giants without a hit over the final 3 2/3 innings.

The Rockies were effectively without two big pieces of the bullpen with closer LaTroy Hawkins temporarily shut down after a pair of rough outings, and set up man John Axford granted a leave to attend to his young son, the victim of a vicious rattlesnake bite incident.  With Hawkins and Axford out, the Giants couldn’t mount anything after Butler’s departure as Raphael Betancourt pitched the ninth inning and picked up the save.

The Giants have dropped three straight while the Rockies improved to 4-0 in road games after sweeping the Brewers in Milwaukee to start the season.  Colorado hadn’t won their first four games as visitors to start a season since 2006.

Nori Aoki stayed hot in this one, picking up a pair of hits to raise his batting average to .412. But the Giants two through six hitters—Joe Panik, Angel Pagan, Buster Posey and Brandon Belt—combined for one hit in 15 official plate appearances and three strikeouts.  Belt’s appearance was his second start in as many days after spending time rehabbing his knee injury, but the versatile infielder didn’t provide a boost, going 0 for 3.

The Giants continue their initial home stand on Tuesday when Tim Hudson will be opposed by Colorado’s Christian Bergman.