San Francisco 4; Colorado 3

DENVER, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- David Bell homered to snap a tie in the top of the ninth inning Monday night, and Robb Nen earned the save as the San Francisco Giants edged the Colorado Rockies, 4-3.

The Giants took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth, but Todd Helton singled off Scott Eyre. San Francisco then handed the ball to Felix Rodriguez, one of the game's best setup men, who had been unscored upon in 13 of his last 14 appearances. But red-hot Jay Payton blasted a two-run homer to tie it.

Rodriguez (4-6), who had allowed just one homer to a righthanded hitter, avoided further damage by retiring the next three hitters.

J.T. Snow and Reggie Sanders were retired to start the ninth before Bell, who had not homered since Aug. 4, crushed a 3-1 pitch from reliever Todd Jones (1-3) for his game-winning roundtripper.

Nen took over in the bottom of the ninth and struck out pinch-hitter Jack Cust before Terry Shumpert singled. Juan Pierre followed with a shallow fly ball and Brent Butler grounded out

as Nen notched his 32nd save in 39 chances.

The save was the 303rd of Nen's career, tying him him with Doug Jones for 13th on the all-time list.

Colorado's Aaron Cook made his first major league start and allowed three runs and nine hits in six-plus innings. He had a rough opening inning, when he walked Kenny Lofton, who was caught stealing, and Rich Aurilia and served up a two-run homer to Jeff Kent.