Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO — If you ever thought that the San Francisco Giants would help out the Los Angeles Dodgers, you would be not dreaming.

Austin Slater hit a ground ball for on out in the bottom of the second to score Brandon Crawford from third base, as the Giants defeated the Rockies 3-0 before 38,204 at AT&T Park on Saturday.

This was the second win in a row for the Giants, after they dropped a season-high 11 straight to begin the month of September, and this is the first time that they won back-to-back games since winning four in a row from August 25-28.

Coupled with the Dodgers’ 17-4 rout of the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, the longtime rival of the Giants is now in first place in the National League West and the Rockies fall into the second Wild Card Spot.

Madison Bumgarner went six innings, allowing no runs on five hits, walking one and striking out two and won for the sixth time this season.

Dating back to his start against the Houston Astros, Bumgarner has thrown 20 consecutive scoreless innings.

“Finish strong and competitive,” said Bumgarner.

Bumgarner was forced to leave the start tonight, despite throwing just 64 pitches, as he suffered tension in his right side.

“Little tightness in his side,” said manager Bruce Bochy.

Hunter Pence added a second run in that bottom of the second inning, as he singled to center field to score Nick Hundley.

As would have it, Bumgarner scored the final run of the game for the Giants, as he scored on a wild pitch thrown by German Marquez with Hundley at the plate in the bottom of the third inning.

Marquez also went six innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out four, as he saw his record fall to 12-10 on the season.

Both teams were warned by Raymond DeJesus in the bottom of the third inning, after Marquez hit Evan Longoria, which came after Bumgarner hit D.J. LeMahieu in the top of the third inning. Marquez hit Slater on top of the helmet in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The top five hitters in their lineup all got hits, but they could not muster a run against the Giants for the second consecutive game. Those five hitters went a combined 5-for-17 against Bumgarner, Tony Watson, Mark Melancon and Will Smith.

The bullpen trio of Watson, Melancon and Smith went three innings, allowing two hits, not walking a batter and struck out five. Smith notched his 12th save of the season.

By being shut out on back-to-back evenings, the last time that the Rockies scored a run was in the bottom of the seventh inning of their 10-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Coors Field, a span of 19 innings. In that inning against the Diamondbacks, the Rockies scored five runs to put the game away.

NOTES: This was the 15th shutout of the season for the Giants, and it was the fourth time this season that have they have thrown back-to-back shutouts. They also did it on March and 30 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, June 1 and 2 versus the Philadelphia Phillies and on August 27 and 28 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Rockies have lost 11 out of their last 14 at AT&T Park.

This is the first time all season that the Rockies have been shutout in back-to-back games.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Rockies wrap up their series with a finale Sunday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT.

Giants rookie Dereck Rodriguez closes out the homestand on Sunday, as he takes the mound in search of his seventh win of the season, while Antonio Senzatela looks for his fifth win of the season for the Rockies.