Rockies-Pirates box score

The Rockies are getting a glimpse of the future, and it looks good.

The present, however, has started to dim.

Rookie right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez backed up a strong effort in San Diego last week with an even better effort against Pittsburgh at Coors Field on Monday night. He got a pat on the back for a job well done but nothing more.

Pittsburgh took advantage of veteran relievers LaTroy Hawkins and Brian Fuentes to rally for a 4-2, 11-inning victory against the Rockies at Coors Field, a bit of revenge for Colorado having swept an earlier series in Pittsburgh.

The loss left the Rockies in fourth place in the National League West — seven games back of Arizona — and fifth in line in the NL wild-card race — but only 3 1/2 games behind San Diego with 38 games to play.

The loss was the fourth in five games for the Rockies and the second in a row in which an eighth-inning lead disappeared.

"The thing we hold onto is the game in front of us,'' Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "We can't do anything about the games behind us. We've done a good job of putting what has happened behind us and being ready for the next day, and that's what we have to do now.''

Hawkins gave up a tying home run to pinch hitter Josh Phelps in the eighth and Fuentes set up the Pirates' two-run 11th when he walked the first batter he faced, Cesar Izturis, and after a sacrifice bunt, hit Matt Kata with a pitch.

Freddy Sanchez singled home the winning run and a throwing error by defensively struggling Garrett Atkins allowed the final run to score.

Two nights after the impressive debut of rookie left-hander Franklin Morales in Los Angeles, Jimenez did what he could to put the Rockies in position to win.

He rebounded from giving up a run in the first — Kata tripled with one out and scored on Adam LaRoche's two-out double — to shut out the Pirates in the next six innings in his encore to six shutout innings at San Diego on Wednesday.

But the Rockies failed to get clutch hits, and the bullpen couldn't close out a Pirates team that has the worst record in the National League.

The Rockies were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, twice failing to get a runner home from third with one out. Yorvit Torrealba lined out for the second out in the fourth and Ryan Spilborghs struck out for the second out in the sixth.

Troy Tulowitzki, whose seventh- inning home run put the Rockies up 2-1, was thrown out as Matt Holliday struck out in the 10th, the rookie shortstop running on his own on the 3-2 pitch to Holliday.

"When you don't execute, you put yourself in position to lose games, and when you execute properly, you put yourself in position to win games,'' Hurdle said. "Unfortunately, the last two games we haven't executed.''

The strength of the Rockies for nearly six weeks — relievers failed in only one save situation in a 41-game stretch — the bullpen has blown leads in four of the past five games and has given up 14 runs (11 earned) in 19 1/3 innings in those five games.

Jeremy Affeldt let a lead get away — although it wasn't a blown save because it was in the fifth inning — when all five batters he faced in San Diego on Thursday scored in the midst of a nine-run fifth. He was also on the mound to give up the deciding hit in Sunday's 4-3 loss to the Dodgers, which was charged to Jorge Julio.

On Monday, Hawkins gave up the home run, his fifth blown save of the season. Fuentes gave up the go-ahead run, a struggle on a night the Rockies were hoping he might finally be strong enough he could get back into a regular turn out of the bullpen and start to pitch back-to-back days again.

Fuentes has made four appearances in the week since returning from a six-week stint on the disabled list because of a strained muscle in his side.

Just as concerning as the problems in the bullpen has been the struggles Atkins has had of late in the field, which extends past errors to include ground balls that have easily gotten by him.

"With Garrett, the problem might rest on my shoulders,'' Hurdle said. "Maybe there is fatigue. Maybe he needs some games of rest."

ringolsbyt@RockyMountainNews.com