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		Season all but over for the Giants By Jeremy Kahn September 19, 2006
	San Francisco Giants manager Felipe Alou argues with home plate umpire Rick Reed over the ejection of relief pitcher Jamey Wright after Wright hit Colorado Rockies batter Matt Holliday with a pitch during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Denver, Tuesday, Sept. 19. 2006. Alou was ejected as well. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
	When the calendar turned to September, it looked the San Francisco Giants were making their final run towards the playoffs. Unfortunately, this final road trip of the season is not going the way that the Giants wanted it go. After being rained out in one of their games in St. Louis, and losing the other two against the NL Central Division leading Cardinals, the Giants moved on to Denver to face the Colorado Rockies. In the first game of the pivotal three-game series, the Giants were blasted by the Rockies by the final score of 20-8. The 20 runs that the Giants allowed were the most runs allowed by the Giants since allowing 20 to the Chicago Cubs on August 13, 1959. In Game 2 of this series, the Giants Matt Cain was roughed up, as he allowed back-to-back home runs to Garrett Atkins and Mat Holliday and the Rockies once again trounced the Giants, this time by a 12-4 final score. Atkins hit two home runs, and the Holliday blast was the longest at Coors Field this season, as it traveled 478 feet into the Denver night. Cain, who in his 42 previous innings, allowed just one earned gave up seven runs and 11 hits in just 5.1 innings of work. Things got dicey in the eighth inning, as former Giants pitcher Jose Mesa hit Mark Sweeney. That did not sit well with the Giants at all, as Jamey Wright hit Holliday in the bottom of the eighth inning just after surrendering a second home run to Atkins. Wright was ejected from the game by home plate umpire Rick Reed, and then Giants’ manager Felipe Alou argued with Reed, and was also ejected. Barry Bonds went 2-for-4 with an RBI single. With that run batted in, Bonds drove in his 1,922nd run of his career, tying Jimmie Foxx for fifth place on the all-time list. Playoff Race: With the loss tonight to the Rockies, the Giants still find themselves 5 games behind the division leading San Diego Padres. The Giants are also 4.5 games behind the second place Los Angeles Dodgers who are now ½ game behind the Padres, as the Dodgers lost 10-6 to the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight, and the Padres won 5-2 over the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the Wild Card race, Los Angeles still leads the pack, and the Giants are still in third place, 4.5 games behind the Dodgers, and the Philadelphia Phillies are still in second place, ½ game behind the Dodgers. San Francisco now has ten games left in their season.