Sandoval homers twice, Zito wins again for Giants

The NL West-leading San Francisco Giants aren't scoreboard watching as September winds down. The division title is nearly theirs.

Pablo Sandoval homered from both sides of the plate and the Giants reduced their magic number to clinch the division to three by beating the Colorado Rockies 9-2 on Thursday.

"I've seen enough baseball today," Bochy said while publicly planning his evening on the town and opting out of watching the Dodgers. "It's up to us to take care of business."

Buster Posey also connected to back another strong start by Barry Zito (13-8) as San Francisco completed a four-game series sweep. Colorado lost its sixth in a row.

Zito won his fifth straight decision and has done everything he can to earn himself a spot in the postseason rotation after being left off for all three rounds when the Giants won it all in 2010.

"It's nice to be able to go out there and have fun and be loose in September," he said. "When you have fun, you're relaxed, good things happen."

The second-place Dodgers lost 4-1 at Washington on Thursday night, and fell 10 games behind the Giants. San Francisco (87-63) moved a season-best 24 games above .500, its best mark since finishing the 2003 season 39 games over.

"The view looks great right now," Angel Pagan said. "We have to really make sure. We can't talk about playoffs right now."

Sandoval connected from both sides for the first time in his career — at any level, he says. Batting right-handed, he hit the first pitch he saw from Jorge De La Rosa (0-1) into the left-field stands for a solo homer in the first inning. He added a three-run drive into the elevated right-field arcade in the fourth.

It marked his fifth career multihomer game. His last came Sept. 18, 2011, also against the Rockies at Coors Field.

"I'm comfortable at home plate. I don't try to hit home runs," said Sandoval, who snapped a homerless drought of 161 at-bats Wednesday night. "When you don't try, things go your way. I got lucky, man."

Posey, drawing chants of "M-V-P!" from the adoring home crowd, followed Sandoval's fourth-inning shot with his 23rd home run. The Giants homered in consecutive at-bats for the second time this season after Nate Schierholtz and Brandon Crawford did so April 11 at Colorado.

Marco Scutaro's fourth-inning single gave him a career-best 175 hits and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. He added an RBI single in the sixth and has hit safely in 42 of 51 games since joining the Giants from the Rockies on July 27.

Zito received more than enough support in the latest impressive start during his comeback year. The Giants won for the ninth straight time in one of his outings — and Zito's 13 victories are his most with the Giants and most since a 16-win season in 2006 for Oakland.