It was 1998, the regular-season finale, and a Giants victory would have clinched the wild card, but Kirk Rueter failed to protect a seven-run lead, and the Giants lost 9-8 on Perez's homer off Robb Nen. The Giants were forced into a one-game wild-card tiebreaker, which they lost the following day in Chicago.

Now they're back in Denver, following Thursday's 2-1 loss to the Reds in 10 innings, this time with six weeks of the season to spare and a playoff race still very much a free-for-all.

"Once we get there, it's do or die for us - maybe not for the whole year, but we've got to take it that way and go all out," catcher Bengie Molina said. "It was a very important series against L.A. (last week in San Francisco), and this is a very important series, one of the toughest we'll play this year.

"They're very hot, both hitting and pitching, but we're right there with them."

The Giants lost Thursday as they did Sept. 27, 1998, with a game-ending home run. Drew Stubbs, who was selected two spots before Tim Lincecum in the 2006 draft, hit Bobby Howry's third pitch of the 10th inning off the foul-pole screen in left field for his first career home run.

The Giants scored one run in each of their past two games at Great American Ball Park, and Wednesday's came on a wild pitch. Asked if it's encouraging to know the next four games are at Coors Field, a hitters' park, manager Bruce Bochy snarled, "We were in a hitters' park. You don't find a better hitters' park than this one."

Bochy was visibly annoyed after his offense went 2-for-12 with men in scoring position, both hits simply moving runners to third base. It's a common theme this year, but Bochy didn't appreciate it happening in this city against this team, consisting largely of players who might belong in Triple-A.

In the ninth, Eli Whiteside popped out on a sacrifice-bunt attempt. In the 10th, Randy Winn swung through a hit-and-run pitch that enabled Pablo Sandoval to be easily thrown out.

Winn had three hits. So did Sandoval. The team had 11. That says a lot about the situational hitting.

"It's nice when you have opportunities, but it's disappointing when you don't get the job done," Winn said.

Earlier than normal, Bochy replaced first baseman Ryan Garko with Travis Ishikawa for defensive reasons. It was the bottom of the sixth with the Giants leading 1-0, but the Reds quickly tied it on Laynce Nix's homer off Matt Cain.

With Ishikawa's turn coming up in the eighth - two runners aboard, one out - Bochy summoned Edgar Renteria to pinch hit, and Renteria grounded into a double play.

"A tight ballgame, you don't execute, good chance it'll come back to haunt you," Bochy said. "The last two games, we were in a funk, which we'll have to get out of soon."

The Rockies await.

They made the playoffs twice in their history, both via the wild card - aside from reaching the '07 World Series, they got to the '95 postseason by clinching with a final-day victory over the Giants at Coors Field.

This time, both teams have playoff desires and are within striking distance of the first-place Dodgers. The Giants, who suddenly don't need to focus solely on the wild card, are the closest they've been to the Dodgers since mid-May.

E-mail John Shea at jshea@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page B - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle