SAN FRANCISCO — With their season at stake, the Giants sure dished it out Tuesday night. And for once, they proved they could take it, too.

Their hyper-aggressive lineup had an obvious stratagem against Colorado Rockies ace Ubaldo Jimenez; stunningly, 17 of the 19 batters Jimenez faced took the first pitch.
Their uncharacteristic patience led to a flood of baserunners, an early exit for Jimenez — and another all-important step in the Giants’ wild-card climb. Barry Zito fed the Rockies all the rainbow curves they could eat as the Giants won, 10-2, and moved within 2 1/2 games of Colorado for the wild-card lead.
All of the sudden, the Giants look like they’re stalking prey — and the Rockies look wounded.
The Giants will look to finish a three-game sweep of Colorado behind Matt Cain on Wednesday in the final regular-season meeting between the clubs. Then they’ll do some scoreboard watching over the final two weeks.
But for now, there’s a revival happening at China Basin. And Zito is at the center of it — a big-money pitcher for reasons that have nothing to do with his $126 million contract.
Even in his darkest hours, Zito almost always delivered with a little help. He’s 106-6 in his career when receiving at least four runs of support, including 21-2 as a Giant. Problem is, he entered the game with the lowest run support in the major leagues (2.94 per game), and the Giants had failed to score for him in 10 of 29 starts.
Zito (10-12) had the stuff to win a pitcher’s duel while reaching double-digit victories for the ninth consecutive season.
He held the Rockies to two runs in seven innings, walked one, struck out nine and has a 1.98 ERA in 11 career starts against them. His curveball baffled the Rockies’ patient lineup again, especially Todd Helton, whose knees buckled while he struck out looking three times.
He showed some grit on his final hitter, shaking off Eric Young Jr.’s line drive off his right wrist and throwing to start a double play.
Zito made the Rockies swing the bat, and the Giants were determined to make Jimenez (13-11) do the same. The Giants entered having swung at the first pitch 33 percent of the time, the highest rate among major league teams. Not surprisingly, their 3.60 pitches per plate appearance was the lowest in the majors. (Incidentally, the Rockies made opposing pitchers work the hardest, at 3.99 pitches per plate appearance.)
But the Giants stalked Jimenez while scoring three runs in the first inning. They forced the Rockies’ ace to throw 38 pitches to get three outs.
They wouldn’t have scored if not for a huge break, though. With the bases loaded and one out, Bengie Molina hit a routine double-play grounder that third baseman Garrett Atkins let clank off his glove for an error. Juan Uribe followed with a single and Travis Ishikawa hit a sacrifice fly.
The Giants’ first three batters also reached base in the third. Uribe’s 400-foot, two-run double to center field broke the game open and Jimenez didn’t survive the inning.
Only twice did the Giants swing at the first pitch from Jimenez. Pablo Sandoval fouled off a pitch before hitting a single in the third inning. And Zito sacrificed on a first-pitch fastball.
Because the Giants seldom run up pitch counts and knock out opposing starters, they haven’t gotten many chances to face soft relievers. But they’ve gotten plenty of chances to pour it on while scoring 19 runs in two games.
The Giants clinched the season series with Colorado (10-7 with one to play), meaning they’d be awarded home-field advantage in the event of a one-game playoff.
That’s no trifling detail. The Giants are 7-1 against the Rockies at AT&T Park, but just 3-6 at Coors Field. The Giants and Rockies have the two best home records in the National League.