By Morris Phillips

Only four hits after the first pitch of the ballgame? Not enough.

A critical, throwing error allowing the go-ahead run to score? One too many.

And Mad Bum extending his scoreless inning streak to 22 innings? Needed to be 23.

Once again, the Giants found Coors Field to be a demanding place, and the Rockies a confounding opponent in their series opening, 5-2 loss in Denver. Madison Bumgarner pitched six, scoreless innings only to run into trouble in the seventh. When the first three batters in the inning singled to load the bases, Bum was gone. The Giants 2-0 lead would be the next thing to disappear on a night when the game time temperature topped 90 degrees.

Rookie reliever Reyes Moronta walked the first batter he faced–slugger Nolan Arenado–trimming the Giants lead to 2-1. A run-scoring, double play ball came next, then Brandon Crawford’s throwing error on a routine grounder to short gave Colorado the lead.

Crawford fielded a ground ball off the bat of Ian Desmond, but threw too casually and errantly to Brandon Belt at first.

“I gave it about an 80-percent throw,” said Crawford. “One-hopper, I had time.”

“It’s about winning games while we’re out there,” Bumgarner said. “That was a tough loss. Everything was going our way early on and didn’t go our way late.”

The Giants three-game win streak was snapped with the loss, and their tenuous grip on second place in the NL West was lost as the Dodgers moved ahead the Giants by beating the Pirates, 17-1. More telling was the Giants blowing an another opportunity to win with Bumgarner starting.  They fell to 2-4 in their ace’s six starts this season, hardly the mid-season boost they were looking for.

Prior to the seventh inning, Bumgarner hadn’t allowed a run since June 16 at Los Angeles.

Gorkys Hernandez homered on the game’s first pitch off Kyle Freeland, but the Rockies and Freeland grew stinger as the game progressed. Buster Posey delivered an RBI double in the third, and that was it. With Freeland and two relievers dealing, the Giants were limited to a pair of hits the rest of the way.

The Rockies added on in the eighth as Ty Blach allowed two runs on three hits without recording an out.

The Giants swept Arizona over the weekend to get as close to the division leaders as they’ve been in months. But the Rockies envisioned themselves in the equation as well, but they slumped in June, and not played as well at home as they have on the road.

After Monday’s win, the Rockies are just 16-22 at Coors Field, but they’ve won 12 of their last 14 against the Giants in Denver.

Chris Stratton gets the ball for the Giants looking for his ninth win on Tuesday in a matchup with Anthony Senzatela, the pitcher who replaced the struggling Jon Gray in the Colorado rotation.