By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: San Francisco Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto squares around for a bunt that scored two runs in the sixth inning on a throwing error against the Colorado Rockies Thursday night at AT&T Park

SAN FRANCISCO – The recipe for winning in the postseason – as the Giants are very well-versed in by now – involve great pitching and an offense that knows how to manufacture runs. Both of those were on display Thursday night.

For a team that has struggled with these for long stretches, particularly in the second half of this season, the Giants sure looked like they have not missed a beat, this being essentially a sink-or-swim final week of the regular season.

Johnny Cueto, whom the team added to provide some stability behind ace Madison Bumgarner, came through once again despite a rocky start. He came through with his bat as well as on the mound – he surrendered only two runs on nine hits over seven innings – in a (7-2) win over the Colorado Rockies at AT&T Park.

The Giants currently own the second wild-card spot in the National League by a full game over the St. Louis Cardinals. Meanwhile, they trail the New York Mets, who did not play Thursday, by a game.

The final three games of the season – the first of which will be played Friday night, with Bumgarner on the mound – will be played against none other than the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have already locked up the NL West crown but would love to knock the Giants right of the playoff picture this weekend.

The night did not start very well for the Giants. That’s because Charlie Blackmon hammered Cueto’s first pitch down the right-field line for a double. Two batters later, Nolan Arenado, a budding Giant-killer, ripped one down the left-field line to bring Blackmon in and give Colorado a 1-0 lead.

However, the Rockies weren’t done with Cueto just yet. After he struck out another Giants tormentor in Carlos Gonzalez, Cueto misplaced an inside fastball and caught too much of the plate, and David Dahl made him pay by smoking it into the gap in right-center to score Arenado.

Cueto got in some more trouble in the third and the damage would have been worse had he not picked Daniel Descalso off first base. He gave up a Gonzalez double and a walk before striking out Tom Murphy to end the inning.

However, he settled down quite nicely and did not allow another run to come across, allowing his offense to get on track and eventually overtake Colorado.

The Giants played a little small ball in the fourth to tie the game. After Hunter Pence’s double put runners on second and third with nobody out, Brandon Crawford’s grounder brought in a run before Joe Panik with two outs scored the other.

Two innings later, they used their bunting game to scoot past the Rockies.

After Crawford made it to second on a throwing error to lead off the inning, Angel Pagan laid down a perfect bunt that hugged the third-base line to not only advance Crawford to third but also get himself on board. Two batters later, Conor Gillespie’s sac fly to deep left brought Crawford home and gave the Giants the lead.

The next bunt came from an unexpected source. Cueto, who could not execute this task two weeks ago, got one down the third-base line well enough to force Arenado to hurry his throw. As a result, his throw was way wide of his target and skipped into the bullpen in right field and allowed two runs to score.

After Cueto exited after the seventh, the bullpen came in and pitched a perfect eighth. The Giants then added a pair of extra runs in the bottom half to put the finishing touches on the series, which saw them take two of the three games.