If the Rockies were an electronic gadget instead of a baseball team, their label would read something like this: “Some assembly required, AAA batteries included.”

Going with the kids in September is one thing. Doing it while trying to ride out injuries to Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez has taken things to the extreme at Coors Field.

“Lineup-wise, we’re somewhat patched up,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said before the game. “We’re more than somewhat. We’re patched up today, there’s no doubt about it.”

The Rockies’ Friday night lineup included seven players who spent all or part of 2011 in the minor leagues. Mark Ellis and Kevin Kouzmanoff, each of whom opened the season with Oakland, were in the Nos.

DENVER, CO – SEPTEMBER 16: Starting pitcher Alex White #43 of the Colorado Rockies is removed from the game by manager Jim Tracy #4 in the sixth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field on September 16, 2011 in Denver, Colorado. (Getty Images North America | Doug Pensinger)

3 and 4 holes.

Given the presence of red-hot left-hander Madison Bumgarner on the mound, the results were predictable enough: a 9-1 loss to the Giants. On a more positive note, no further injuries were reported, and the crowd of 47,302 got to stick around for postgame fireworks.

But back to the reality of the Rockies’ lost season.

At this point, they have to hope rookie right-hander Alex White’s struggles are more a byproduct of flawed mechanics and lengthy inactivity than an inability to handle the altitude. At any rate, his struggles in Denver have been alarming, witness his altitude-sick 9.72 ERA in three starts, during which he has served up nine home runs in 16 2/3 innings.

“It has nothing to do with any of the injuries,” said White, who was disabled for more than two months with a torn flexor tendon before being acquired in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade. “To be honest with you, it’s the fifth or sixth time we’ve had this conversation, and I’m so sick of it and frustrated with it. It’s time for this not to happen.”

Said Tracy, when asked if he felt part of White’s struggles were attributable to his injury-marred season: “I’m sure it is. As we move forward, I think we’ll see him getting to the point where he’s comfortable with the ebb and flow of the season and the regularity of his work is there.”

As ugly as the final score was, White had his moments. He induced a double-play ball from Carlos Beltran and struck out Pablo Sandoval. But a two-run homer by Brandon Belt on a hanging splitter and a solo shot by Cody Ross put him in a 3-1 hole entering the sixth.

That’s when “it unraveled very quickly,” Tracy said. “That’s how quickly at this level the game can get away. The learning part is to recognize that, at this level, you can’t afford to misfire. When there are hitters at the plate to get to and put innings down, you’ve got to do so.”

White wouldn’t get out of the inning, allowing a two-out walk, a hit batter and three straight hits, including a double by Bumgarner, before Tracy came with the hook. The bottom line on White’s night: 5 2/3 innings, six earned runs.

“We’re pretty much out of it as a team,” White said. “If we weren’t, I wouldn’t be pitching. I’m just getting the innings, getting the work in, trying to get this stuff out of the way before next year, I hope.”

Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com

Looking ahead

TODAY: Giants at Rockies, 6:10 p.m., Root

A preview of things to come in the National League West: kid lefties Drew Pomeranz and Eric Surkamp squaring off. Pomeranz (1-0, 0.00 ERA) was brilliant in his major- league debut vs. Cincinnati on Sunday, pitching five shutout inningsand with an arm that isn’t at full strength and after working 10 innings in a span of six weeks. Surkamp made the jump from Double-A, where he was 10-4, 2.02 in 23 starts. He’ll be making his fourth start in the majors. Jim Armstrong, The Denver Post

Upcoming pitching matchups

Sunday: Giants’ Matt Cain (11-10, 2.79 ERA) at Rockies’ Esmil Rogers (6-5, 5.88), 1:10 p.m., Root

Monday: Padres’ Cory Luebke (5-9, 3.27) at Rockies’ Kevin Millwood (4-2, 3.68), 6:40 p.m., Root

Tuesday: Padres’ Mat Latos (7-14, 3.73) at Rockies’ Jhoulys Chacin (11-12, 3.73), 6:40 p.m., Root

Wednesday: Padres’ Tim Stauffer (9-12, 3.73) at Rockies’ Aaron Cook (3-9, 5.97), 1:10 p.m., Root

Tim Lincecum doesn’t often tip his cap to a standing ovation, but something compelled him to gesture as he walked off the mound on a cloudy Sunday afternoon at China Basin.

“I’ve never been one to do that,” Lincecum said. “But you could kind of tell … they were really, really wanting a win, or a lead.”

The Giants did not need a good pitcher, or even a very, very, very, very good one. They needed their ace to be great, and he found a way as the Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 3-1 to avoid what would have been a crushing, four-game sweep.

Lincecum provided the stopper performance, holding down the Phillies into the eighth inning. And the Giants, for all their embarrassment of base runners against right-hander Roy Oswalt, sprinkled in just enough hard contact in the clutch to win for the second time in 10 games.

It began with the Giants’ whippetlike whiz on the mound, even though it didn’t come easily. Lincecum, searching for rhythm, pitched out of the stretch with nobody on base. He didn’t have his slider. So he went to his patented fastball-changeup combination, knowing he used that sequence sparingly when he pitched 10 days earlier in Philadelphia. And it worked.

“I think he’s being himself,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “This is a great pitcher who’s won a couple Cy Youngs. That’s what I see.”

When the Giants’ ace won in Philadelphia, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel refused to call Lincecum great. What about

now?

“He pitched good,” Manuel said. “He was as good today as he was in Philly. We ran into a good pitcher.”

Stubborn semantics aside, there’s no disputing the Giants desperately needed to win. For all the talk about being outclassed by the Phillies, the Giants finished their season series a respectable 3-4 against them.

More important, the Giants entered the showdown series as a first-place team and exited it still atop the division — having lost just a half-game off their lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“We’ve got the Diamondbacks at our heels, and we know that,” Lincecum said. “We don’t want to be content to win here or there. We want to use this as a hop to get on a winning streak.”

Bochy said: “The guys needed this. We needed this win. But we’ll have to get this offense going.”

It seemed to go in circles against Oswalt, who was making his first start after coming off the disabled list. At one point in the fifth inning, the Giants had 10 hits and just one run.

Even the National League’s worst offense couldn’t foul up so many opportunities. The Giants’ 0-for-22 streak with runners in scoring position, which dated back four games, finally ended after Pablo Sandoval hit a leadoff double in the fourth. But, comically, it took three hits to score him. Sandoval held on Aubrey Huff’s bloop single. Nate Schierholtz lined a one-out single to load the bases. Finally, Chris Stewart singled in the run.

The Giants kept getting base runners but scored only two more runs on a pair of sacrifice flies — Orlando Cabrera snapped a tie in the fifth, and Jeff Keppinger hit his in the sixth.

More worrisome: The Giants finished the game without Carlos Beltran, their key addition, who departed after feeling a twinge on the top of his right hand while taking a swing in the sixth inning. He had X-rays that were negative but is questionable to play Monday.

Lincecum (10-9) had his own scare in the eighth, when Chase Utley threw his bat at a change-up, and the flying wood struck Lincecum on the right knee. Utley came out to offer an apology, which Lincecum accepted, and he was able to continue.

Huff’s error prolonged the inning, and Javier Lopez was summoned to finish the eighth, which he did while stranding two runners. Then Brian Wilson, who hadn’t scooped up a save situation in 10 days, protected the lead in the ninth.

“I don’t work on commission,” Wilson said.

Lincecum’s victory was his first in August since 2009. He was 0-5 in the month last season, a personal trial that he came through with newfound dedication, mental toughness and physical fitness.

“Obviously there’s the factor of being in shape and letting your body allow you to do your thing,” he said, asked the year-over-year difference. “It’s finding your rhythm and trusting your stuff. Lately, I’ve been feeling really good out there.”

The Giants hope to keep that feeling going against the Pittsburgh Pirates, who enter with a 10-game losing streak.

For more on the Giants, see Andrew Baggarly’s Extra Baggs blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/extrabaggs.