SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Troy Tulowitzki is heating up, and the Colorado Rockies are hoping the rest of their lineup will follow suit.
Tulowitzki had three hits and drove in a run, Jhoulys Chacin pitched six effective innings and the Rockies beat the San Francisco Giants 2-1 on Saturday.
"You never know when you're going to get on one of those streaks," Tulowitzki said. "I've definitely put in the work in the batting cages. To have success on a day we win is rewarding."
Tulowitzki is batting .353 (12 for 34) in his last nine games, although he's still looking for his first home run in over two weeks. He had a double in each of his previous three games.
"This is what he has coming to him," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. "Several of the balls he's hit have been vicious line drives that end up in a fielder's glove. Sooner or later those things are going to turn."
Tulowitzki was also involved in the key defensive play of the game. After Andres Torres doubled with one out in the fifth, Chacin and Tulowitzki hooked up on a pickoff play.
"That's a daylight play I run with the pitchers," Tulowitzki said. "It's pretty successful when it's run right. It was a big play."
Chacin (6-4) allowed one run and four hits to end a personal two-game losing streak and help the Rockies win in San Francisco for the first time in five games.
"He gave me the inside move," Chacin said of the pickoff. "When I looked back at second I saw Torres really off the base. I just tried to throw the ball accurately."
Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Torres wasn't thinking about stealing third.
"Andres just got picked off," he said. "He wasn't going anywhere. He just kind of got in no man's land there, and we're getting to the heart of our order and his pitch count was getting up there. That was not a good play for us."
Cody Ross homered on his bobblehead day but the Giants still lost a three-game winning streak. Madison Bumgarner (2-7) yielded an earned run and seven hits over seven innings.
"He struggled with his command a little bit but when he needed to make pitches, he made pitches," Ross said of Chacin. "He kept us off balance throwing breaking balls and changeups in hitter's counts and getting us out front."
Chacin said his fastball command was not there in the early innings, but his other pitches were effective.
"The change was good today," Chacin said. "It helped me set up other pitches until I could start to throw the fastball for strikes. I was just trying to find a way to get outs and get out of innings."
Tulowitzki singled and scored on a throwing error by shortstop Brandon Crawford in the fifth, then added an RBI single in the sixth that gave the Rockies a 2-0 lead. The star shortstop is a career .298 hitter in San Francisco.