DENVER -- Trevor Story’s leadoff home run and Ian Desmond’s two-run shot in the ninth gave the Rockies hope Tuesday, only to see it snatched away when Wade Davis walked two of the first three men he faced in what would be a four-run Giants 10th and an 8-4 loss at Coors Field.

Here are three takeaways from the Rockies’ 10th loss in 12 games -- one that dropped them to 46-49 and assured that their seven-game homestand coming out of the All-Star break will not be a winning one:

1) The return of the walk

There was a seven-game stretch in June when Davis walked six in 6 1/3 innings, blew two of five save chances and lost a tie game. His struggles reached the point where manager Bud Black revealed that the possibility of removing Davis as closer was “a fair question.” Scott Oberg, who served as closer when Davis was out with an oblique injury earlier in the season, was the prime replacement candidate.

• Box score

But Davis’ form returned. In four contests going into Tuesday, he converted three saves and didn’t walk anyone, and after the All-Star break whatever tentativeness he exhibited after the injury was gone. 

However, with one down in the 10th, walks to Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval set up the big inning that started with Alex Dickerson’s fourth hit, an RBI single. Brandon Crawford’s run-scoring single chased Davis.

“Just couldn’t find the strike zone there when he needed to throw a strike,” Black said. “The at-bat to Posey, the velocity was fine, the action on his curveball and his cutter were fine. He just couldn’t locate his pitches in the strike zone when he needed to, to both Posey and Sandoval.”

Oberg saw a nine-inning scoreless streak end when he gave up a run in the eighth. Then Chad Bettis gave up a ninth-inning leadoff homer to Mike Yastrzemski that left the Rockies with a three-run deficit.

2) Desmond taking a cue from the Giants

Desmond, the Rockies’ center fielder, watched his opposite number with the Giants, Kevin Pillar, make three highlight catches to take hits away from the Rockies and it got him thinking.

After postseason appearances the last two years, the Rockies entered the season keen on knocking off the six-time defending National League West champion Dodgers. But the season has been one of mood swings, with the last few weeks being a big downer. And Desmond looked across and saw the Giants, who have won the first three of the four-game series to pull a game ahead of the Rockies in the win column, playing with a freedom the Rockies lack. They were certainly tight while managing just four runs in a doubleheader Monday and three hits in the first eight innings Tuesday.

“They [the Giants] are playing great -- they’re playing, maybe, the way we should be playing -- with nothing to lose, just going out there and having fun,” Desmond said. “They came out of Spring Training talking about how they wanted to win it for [manager] Bruce Bochy’s last year, and they probably set the bar high. I would never count out the Giants.

“Once they fell back a little bit in the division they started playing a little better. We probably put the clamps down a little too hard on ourselves, things get magnified and people start forgetting who they are and trying to be perfect all the time.”

Desmond was including himself.

On June 29, he had a .280 batting average, but that was the game when he dropped a fly ball in a game against the Dodgers. Since then, his average has dropped 10 points. Tuesday, while standing in the outfield in the top of the ninth, he checked his mindset.

“I was kind of running through process in my mind, ‘Where’s your mental focus?’” Desmond said. “I was thinking, ‘When did things start going sideways for you?’ It was when I dropped that fly ball against L.A. I was swinging the bat and playing real well, then I dropped that fly ball and all of a sudden started feeling I needed to be perfect.”

3) Lambert getting his bearings

Rookie Peter Lambert entered with a 9.17 ERA in his first four home starts, but looked more in control in his previous outing (four runs in five innings against the Astros). This time he held the Giants to two runs and six hits, with three strikeouts, in six innings -- a much-needed performance to begin putting aside the questions about pitching at Coors Field.

Yastrzemski’s RBI double in the second was solid, but Lambert was hurt by two infield singles. However, he escaped with a double-play grounder, and used four pitches to keep the ball out of danger areas.

“I’d been falling behind in counts a lot, not really getting deep into the game,” Lambert said. “Especially after the last few days [of high-scoring games], my goal was to get deep into this game and save our bullpen.

“My mindset didn’t change. A few infield hits got me in that [second] inning but I was just trying to attack all night long.”