DENVER -- Brendan Rodgers looked from the on-deck circle, and past Rockies teammate Charlie Blackmon in the batter’s box, to a 10th-inning advice session for Giants pitcher Camilo Doval on Saturday night.

“I knew they weren’t talking about Chuck,” Rodgers said, smiling.

The Giants walked Blackmon intentionally to challenge Rodgers, who had spent the entire evening succeeding. Rodgers won out again, with an RBI single to center field -- his fourth hit of the game -- to give the Rockies a 4-3 victory at Coors Field.

Rodgers’ guess of Doval’s plan against him actually was incorrect. But when one is hitting the way Rodgers has for much of this season -- including a .356/.400/.481 slash line in his last 34 games -- it’s like he can’t go wrong.

“I faced him a couple times in the past and he threw me a lot of sliders, and heaters late,” Rodgers said. “He just started throwing a sinker. So I honestly thought he was going to be trying to bust me in with a sinker.”

But the first pitch was a cut fastball inside. Rodgers then climbed into Doval’s mind and expected a repeat cutter.

“I was trying to be as short as possible,” Rodgers said. “Everyone knows he throws 100 mph. It’s going left and right. You really don’t know where it’s going. So I went up there and told myself I was going to see another one.

“I did. It was kind of a cutter but it stayed pretty straight.”

The 26-year-old Rodgers, in his second season as a regular, is emerging as a hitter who waylays the best-laid plans.

His .286 batting average is the product of nearly four months of All-Star level hitting, after a .078 April -- “something I’ll never forget; I think it made me a better player and person.” Many nights since have been like Saturday, when he singled in the first, delivered an RBI double off Alex Cobb in the two-run third, and singles in the eighth and 10th.

Rodgers is one of four Major Leaguers with four four-hit games this season.

“We’ve seen it coming,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “We’ve talked about it for the last couple months. You take April away and look at it right now -- I think everybody should do that. Look at the numbers since April, look where he ranks in regards to all National League second basemen, or all second basemen in baseball.

“What he’s done on the defensive side -- he’s much improved due to all the hard work and focus, which has been a priority for him. But the bat has been real.”

The Giants’ inability to clean up against lower-division clubs -- they split a four-game set with the D-backs and have dropped the series with the Rockies, which ends Sunday -- has pushed them to 59-61 and hurt their Wild Card chances. Rodgers would rather be in the race, but he can take solace in delivering a performance that makes a difference in games now and could make a difference in playoff races in the future.

Rookie righty Ryan Feltner, after some starts of hard knocks, held the Giants to two hits and one run in six innings, during which he struck out five. Recent callup Wynton Bernard drove in a key seventh-inning run and made two rangy catches in center field in the eighth.

But guys like Rodgers, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, are expected to, and expect to, make the contributions from the rest of the roster result in victories.

“You always want to do good,” he said. “That’s the ultimate goal. Sometimes you add a little too much pressure on yourself in certain situations and that doesn’t allow you to do that. So I’ve just been trying to simplify everything about the game, mentally and physically.”

Rodgers is becoming a player others talk about, which makes it nice when opponents can’t do anything about him.