DENVER – Tim Lincecum effectively pitched for six innings to extend his road winning streak to a career-best five in a row, Brandon Crawford doubled twice and drove in two runs, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 8-3 Wednesday night to continue their strong play away from home.

Marco Scutaro added three hits, including a pair of run-scoring singles, to help the NL West-leading Giants take two of three from the Rockies and improve to 21-7 on the road since the All-Star break, best in the NL. They are unbeaten in their last nine series on the road (8-0-1).

Lincecum (9-14), who allowed three runs on six hits, prominently has figured in that run of success, going 5-0 with a 2.61 ERA in his last five road starts. The two-time NL Cy Young award winner had struggled on the road earlier, going 1-6 with a 9.00 ERA through his first 10 starts away from home.

He finished with eight strikeouts and four walks.

Jeff Francis (5-5) couldn't recover from a tough first inning and took the loss, allowing five runs on seven hits in three innings. He struck out five and walked none.

Down 6-2 in the sixth after Crawford doubled for the second time and scored on Scutaro's second single, the Rockies added a run in their half of the sixth on Charlie Blackmon's pinch-hit RBI double.

But the Giants added a pair of runs in the ninth on a run-scoring triple by Hunter Pence and Joaquin Arias' sacrifice fly.

The Giants had grabbed a 5-0 lead by batting around in the first inning. Gregor Blanco tripled off Francis to start the game and scored when Scutaro followed with a single. Buster Posey and Arias each singled around Pence's fielder's choice to account for another run and Hector Sanchez hit an RBI single ahead of Crawford's two-out, two-run double that rolled to the right field wall.

Colorado pulled to 5-2 behind Wilin Rosario's RBI single in the first and his solo homer in the third. Rosario drove Lincecum's 83 mph changeup deep into the left field bleachers for his team-leading 24th homer, one shy of the Rockies' rookie record set by Todd Helton (25) in 1998.