Rockies’ Hopes End on Road

The end of the road finally came for the Colorado Rockies.

After winning an NL wild-card spot last year in their third season, the Rockies were eliminated from playoff contention Saturday with a 6-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants at San Francisco.

“The way we play on the road, why has it taken so long?,” said Don Baylor, manager of the Rockies. “Why is this surprising?”

The Rockies lost for the fifth time in six games and dropped to 26-52 on the road, worst in the league.

A week ago, the Rockies were creeping back into contention and looked to a three-game home series with the Dodgers as their chance to make one last run. Losing two of those three, plus three more to the Giants, removed them from the playoff picture.

Kirk Rueter (6-8) pitched seven scoreless innings and rookie Marcus Jensen drove in three runs for the Giants.

Barry Bonds of the Giants stole his 34th base. He needs six steals in his last seven games to become only the second member of the 40-40 club. Oakland’s Jose Canseco hit 42 home runs with 40 steals in 1988.

Atlanta 5, Montreal 4--Marquis Grissom and Eddie Perez homered, and Denny Neagle (16-8) pitched a strong 7 1/3 innings at Atlanta as the Braves moved to within one victory of a fifth consecutive postseason appearance.

Mark Wohlers gave up Vladimir Guerrero’s first major-league home run in the ninth, but struck out Mark Grudzielanek with runners on first and third for his 38th save.

Pittsburgh 8, Chicago 3--Jay Bell hit a three-run homer at Pittsburgh and the last-place Pirates won their 10th consecutive game.

The winning streak is the Pirates longest since an 11-game string in 1992.

Bell’s home run, his second in two nights, came against reliever Rodney Myers and gave the Pirates a 7-0 lead in the third.

The Cubs lost their seventh consecutive game, matching their worst skid of the season.

Rich Loiselle (1-0) won his second major league start.

Philadelphia 2, New York 1--Curt Schilling struck out 10 at Philadelphia in his NL-leading eighth complete game.

Schilling (9-9) gave up only five hits and improved to 8-1 lifetime against the Mets, including 5-0 at Veterans Stadium.

Pete Harnisch (8-12) is 0-5 in his last eight starts, and remained winless since Aug. 8.

Florida 2, Houston 1--Jeff Conine and Devon White hit consecutive home runs to start the ninth inning at Miami and the Marlins dealt the Astros their seventh consecutive loss.

The Astros, 0-7 on their current eight-game road trip, fell 5 1/2 games behind NL Central-leader St. Louis with seven remaining.