DENVER -- The Giants are three games back of a National League Wild Card spot. Let that sink in for a minute.

On June 26, San Francisco had just lost two out of three to the Rockies at Oracle Park, dropping them to 34-45 on the season, 7 1/2 games out in the NL Wild Card standings.

Fast-forward three weeks, and this team is, as Kevin Pillar put it after Tuesday night’s 8-4, 10-inning victory over the Rockies at Coors Field, “within striking distance.”

In late June, the dialogue surrounding the Giants was primarily about what they might get in return for players like Madison Bumgarner and Will Smith with the July 31 Trade Deadline nearing. Now, the conversation is about a resurrected offense that has fueled a run of 11 wins in 13 games to vault San Francisco into the thick of the annual dogfight for the postseason.

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“It’s exciting to get [to our hotel], sleep quick, come back and try to win another game tomorrow,” Pillar said. “I think a lot of people were counting this team out, and I think, to some degree, we might’ve fallen victim to that in this clubhouse, thinking this might be a long year. You hear all these trade rumors; are we going to lose these guys?

“But it’s an older team, a veteran team. A lot of guys in here have played in really big games, won multiple World Series, and sometimes you’ve got to rely on experience.”

There have been several heroes for the Giants over this hot stretch, but on Tuesday, it was Alex Dickerson who came through with the biggest hit of the game, a go-ahead single in the 10th inning after Colorado had tied things up in the ninth on Ian Desmond’s two-run homer off Smith.

Dickerson lined a single into right field for his career-high fourth hit of the game, driving in Buster Posey and opening the floodgates for what ended up being a four-run frame.

As they gathered their things together at their lockers after the game, some in the Giants clubhouse looked up and saw what was on the television, tuned to MLB Network: a graphic showing how hot particular San Francisco hitters were, including Dickerson.

Beneath the graphic, it read: “Should the Giants be buyers or sellers at the Trade Deadline?”

Three weeks ago, this question had a straightforward, simple answer: sellers. Now, though the answer may still be the same, it’s not quite as clear or simple.

“We’re just trying to make ourselves relevant,” Pillar said. “I think we’ve done that. I don’t think in the grand scheme of Major League Baseball a lot of people have given this team a chance or started to notice what we’ve been able to do the past three weeks, but the standings are the standings. We’re in striking distance, about 15 days until the Trade Deadline, so I think if we just continue to go out there and win, whatever happens, happens.

“It wouldn’t be the first time in the history of the game where a team was kind of in that middle ground, even though they were competing for a Wild Card spot, knowing they have pending free agents. If they get traded, we’ve still got a job to do, and we’ve still got to believe in the group of guys we have, try to go out and win and do something special.”

Pillar had a lot to say, both on and off the field. The center fielder made three spectacular catches during Tuesday’s win, one to rob Trevor Story of a hit in the third, another to rob Tony Wolters with a full-extension dive in the eighth, and a third to nab a sinking line drive off the bat of Story in the 10th.

Brandon Crawford also flashed the leather, with a tremendous backhand play on a 103.6 mph one-hopper by Ryan McMahon in the second.

Pillar and Crawford had played a combined 35 innings during Monday’s doubleheader.

“It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen,” Dickerson said of Pillar’s defense. “Every ball that there’s even a question, if he’s diving, he’s got it. Especially with the amount of ground you have to cover here in Colorado, he’s saved so many runs here in the last three games.”

Dickerson hasn’t been too shabby, either. With his big hit Tuesday, he finished the night 4-for-5 with two RBIs and is batting an even .400 (24-for-60) with four home runs while wearing orange and black. He’s been one of the key catalysts in an offense that has come alive and made the first two months of the season seem like a distant memory.

“He’s always been a good hitter,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s why he was called up in San Diego. He’s had a couple injuries that set him back. ... There’s a confidence. You see it up there in any situation.”

The confidence is running high in the Giants clubhouse. But it isn’t as if many individuals in there haven’t been here before.

“I don’t really look at it,” Bochy said about the Wild Card standings. “A little later, I might take a look at what’s going on. I have an idea; I know how bunched up it is. But you’ve got to focus on winning a ballgame.”