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DENVER -- Juan Nicasio went from erratic all season to electric again simply by following orders. Before the game, veteran catcher Yorvit Torrealba told the young pitcher to "pound the strike zone." No cute or fancy stuff, just throw whatever Torrealba told him to throw. Nicasio paid attention and prospered. The righty scattered three hits over six innings, Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki each drove in two runs and the Colorado Rockies won their first series over San Francisco in two years, beating the Giants 5-0 on Sunday. "Thats what everybody was waiting for from him," said Gonzalez, whose team took three of four from the reigning World Series champions. "Before, all those pitches he was making in a game, it was really hard for him to get out of the fifth. Tonight, it was a different story." Since it was his first time catching the inconsistent Nicasio this season, Torrealba had a brief pregame meeting with him. In their talk, he just reminded him to throw strikes and "whatever I put down, you throw." Nicasio (4-1) wasnt about to disobey Torrealba. "He called for a lot of breaking balls, in situations for me where I want to throw fastball," Nicasio said. "He told me, No, breaking ball or sinker." By following Torrealbas instructions, Nicasio shut down one of the top-hitting teams in baseball. He struck out five and allowing only an intentional walk before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth. It was only the third time in nine starts the righty has thrown at least six innings. Before Sunday, Nicasio had laboured in games, throwing way too many pitches that led to early exits. He was pretty much pitching to keep his spot in the rotation, especially on the heels of Tyler Chatwoods solid performance the previous day. Nicasio could be the odd starter out when Jeff Francis returns from the disabled list at the end of the month. More outings like this only boost Nicasios case to remain in the rotation. Not that hes thinking along those lines. "I didnt have pressure," he insisted. "When I go to pitch, Im focused. I want to do my job, throw strikes." He worked his way out of a sticky situation in the sixth -- with the assistance of Torrealba, of course. With two outs and two on, Torrealba paid a visit to the mound when Brandon Belt ran the count to 3-2. Torrealba told Nicasio to throw a slider down and away. Nicasio did just that -- even though the pitcher wanted to throw a sinker down the middle -- and struck out Belt. So elated was Nicasio that he skipped off the mound and pumped his fist before making his way into the dugout to an ovation from the crowd. Torrealba was beaming, too. "He can pitch on this level," Torrealba said. "Today, he showed it. If he pounds the strike zone, hes fine." Dexter Fowler tied a career high with four hits and Jordan Pacheco also drove in a run as Colorado captured its first series against San Francisco since May 16-17, 2011, at Coors Field. Gregor Blanco and Brandon Crawford each had two hits. Pinch-hitter Joaquin Arias had the other as the Giants lost their third in a row to the Rockies after beating them 10 straight times. The Giants concluded a six-game road swing with a 1-5 mark in which their starting pitching fizzled and their defence faltered. The starters had a 9.82 ERA and the fielders committed 13 errors on the trip. This is far from the norm for the Giants, whose rotation was so dependable in winning the World Series last season. "Were going to have our off days and were going to be bad," manager Bruce Bochy explained. "Its a temporary thing. You dont have the success weve had and not be good, these pitchers. Have to remind themselves how good they are." Barry Zito (3-3) turned in a second straight ineffective outing. He allowed 11 hits and five runs in 5 2-3 innings. The lefty struggled on Tuesday in Toronto when he surrendered eight runs -- five earned -- in 5 2-3 innings. He was looking to get back on track against Colorado, a team he hadnt lost to since Sept. 25, 2008. "Ive given up quite a few hits the last couple of games," Zito said. "It doesnt feel good to be allowing all those base runners, but at the same time battling out of innings is encouraging." The Rockies pounced on Zito early, scoring a run in the first when Gonzalez singled home Eric Young Jr. Colorado opened a 3-0 lead in the fifth on an RBI double by Gonzalez and a run-scoring single from Pacheco. Tulowitzki added some insurance with a two-run single an inning later off Jose Mijares, who came in for Zito. "Weve just got to keep fighting and well come out of it," Zito said of the teams slump. Bochy elected to rest two of his hottest hitters, catcher Buster Posey and infielder Marco Scutaro. It was a particularly difficult decision for Bochy to keep Scutaro out of the lineup since hes in the midst of a 17-game hitting streak. "Hes been on a great run here," Bochy said. "Sometimes, youve got to give him a break." Notes: Giants 2B Nick Noonan collided with Gonzalez on a pick-off attempt in the third, hurting his collarbone. Noonan stayed in the game. "I think hes fine," Bochy said. ... CF Angel Pagan left in the fifth with the flu. "He wasnt feeling all that good and it caught up with him during the game," Bochy said. ... The Rockies gave away 20,000 Dante Bichette bobblehead dolls on Sunday. Bichette, the teams hitting coach, also threw out the first pitch. ... Manager Walt Weiss attended his sons high school graduation Sunday before arriving at the park.Matt Beleskey Jersey .Y. -- Sabres forward Drew Stafford has witnessed plenty of turmoil during his eight seasons in Buffalo. Anaheim Ducks Store . The 15th-ranked Canadian men lost the opening two games of their European tour: 19-15 to No. 17 Georgia and 21-20 to No. https://www.cheapducks.com/ . -- Ryan Blaney provided more evidence that Penske Racings No. Josh Manson Jersey . -- Aaron Murray threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns, ran for another score, and led No. Randy Ladouceur Jersey . The nimble-footed quarterback got his wish, dashing through the snow and a weary defence all the way into the NCAA record book.For all the ways in which the image of a young Muslim woman proudly playing the national sport offers a modern, hopeful interpretation of liberté, égalité, fraternité and the future of France, there is also something ancient and familiar about Jessica Houra-dHommeauxs passion for soccer.Growing up in Angers, not quite 200 miles southwest of Paris, Houra-dHommeaux played for the same reasons as generations of French children, albeit most of them boys for many of those years. She watched her father play and coach. She watched an older brother play. She played because it was what she knew.So even if the larger culture in which she grew up was, at best, indifferent (and, at worst, openly resistant) to a young womans passion for a sport long dominated by men, her connection to the field not only endured but grew stronger. It remains the bond with her father even after his death. That he never saw her play for the national team doesnt matter.I want that he was proud of me, Houra-dHommeaux said in her second language. So its for that, I think, I still play football. Because I know that he was proud of me when I was [playing for a youth] national team. I do everything knowing hes proud of me now. Its my force, its my inspiration.In dozens of forms, each person with her own story, that explains how a generation of French players convinced a country to accept and embrace the womens game. It became impossible to ignore their passion because it was so familiar. It burrows down into a person and becomes part of them.They gave France the team people wanted to believe in. They made themselves matter to people. And now because they do, they need to give France a champion. That is part of the bargain.Which womens team has the most at stake in the Olympics? The obvious answer is host Brazil, and at least symbolically, its inarguable. To win gold in Rio de Janeiros Maracana, especially in light of missteps by the iconic mens national team in recent years, would be a powerful statement. But it would likely be of more symbolic utility than practical. The infrastructure to consistently develop and support the womens game isnt going to spring up overnight in Brazil.A gold medal, not an impossibility based on Australias World Cup showing, would change the paradigm in the country. Another win would only add to the power wielded for change by American players.But three years ahead of the 2019 FIFA Womens World Cup, France has an opportunity unique to the field. To win gold would in some ways be a small step for a team that played for bronze four years ago and is ranked third in the world at the moment. That small step could ensure the giant changes.Entering the 2011 World Cup, France had qualified just once previously for either that event or the Olympics. The French didnt advance out of the group stage in a European Championship until 2009, and even then, they were outscored in the tournament. The invisible line that ran through Western Europe, separating a successful sport in Germany and the Nordic countries from the soccer chauvinism of the rest of the continent, traced the northern border of France. It was why several French players posed nude before that 2011 tournament, their answer clear in asking what it would take for their country to pay attention.A lot can change in five years.According to UEFA statistics, France is now one of seven European nations with more than 60,000 registered female players (73,484 in 2014-15), the only such country south of that invisible line of cultural separation. With more than 1.8 million total registered players in France, the divide between genders remains a chasm, but the 2014-15 figure represented roughly a 25 percent increase on even two years prior. That mirrors the anecdotal experiences of those involved.When I begin, womens football is not so popular, Houra-dHommeaux recalled of the 1990s. The people when I told them I play football, they say What? You play football? Its weird. So it was not so easy at the beginning.Houra-dHommeaux is only 28, but she already spans multiple eras of womens soccer in France. When she began to play for the Paris Saint-Germain womens team and the French national team less than a decade ago, soccer was not her sole occupation. It could not be. She still worked more than 30 hours a week in a clerical job in the medical field, practicing and playing games around that schedule. But Qatar Sports Investment bought PSG in 2011 and, in addition to pouring millions into the mens team, invested the resources to make the womens team fully professional and one of Europes elite. Only then did Houra give up her job outside of soccer. (After seven seasons with PSG, Houra-dHommeaux moved to Lyon, Frances other giant of womens soccer.)Again, change happens slowly. Only a handful of clubs in the top division of French womens football are truly professional. There are perhaps dozens of female players who are able to make soccer a full-time career. Many of those stars are brought in from abroad to bolster the ranks of PSG or Lyon (given the salaries available in the National Womens Soccer League, that is not necessarily different than in this country). But the opportunity does exist, an evolution that happened in real time for a generation of players.It was hard for my life with my family, Houra-dHommeaux said of balancing two careers. Since I play just football, its easy because Im just focused on football. Im not tired at the end of my work day, and I can have a good time with my family. I think its important to have good time with your family if you want to be good at football because when you are happy outside of football, in your life, I think you are better and better on the pitch.The cause and effect of change in France is muddled, as it often is in reality. Coming on the heels of a disastrous and nationally embarrassing effort by the mens team in the 2010 World Cup, when French players boycotted a training sessionn and then exited in the group stage, the run the womens team made to the semifinals of the 2011 World Cup in nearby Germany catapulted womens football into the spotlight.dddddddddddd The womens team then made it to the semifinals of the 2012 Olympics, while the wounded mens team quietly bowed out of that years Euros.The timing was fortuitous. But when the French womens team seized its moments in 2011 and 2012, it marked the product of more than a decade of preparation, a concerted effort to raise the level of play. Girls were finally allowed to live and train alongside boys at the national training center, commonly known as Clairefontaine, a decade after it opened its doors. Among the early beneficiaries were many of the players on the 2011 or 2012 teams, players like Houra-dHommeaux, Camille Abily and Laura Georges.What happened in 2011 and 2012 -- the arrival of a golden generation that also included Louisa Necib, Wendie Renard, Elodie Thomis and so many more familiar names -- altered the map of womens soccer. It birthed a new power.Players are not afraid anymore to play against Germany, to play against the U.S., said?Georges,?the veteran defender who was forced to withdraw from the team shortly before the Olympics because of injury.?Before there was like a supremacy of the really big teams, and we were kind of scared. We could not even really play together, we were just playing long ball, we were not keeping the ball and playing around. We were kind of scared of the big teams. Now players are more comfortable playing against the big teams. We have more experience, more confidence.When France beat the United States 2-0 in February 2015, it marked the Americans first loss in the history of the series. But far from embarrassing, it served as an important component of the preparation for the Americans World Cup title that followed. Few teams pushed the United States the way France did.Its the trifecta, its mentality, technique and athleticism, U.S. coach Jill Ellis said of what makes a program elite. When I took over [the U.S. program], I said to our team that we have the beauty of having all three. Many countries dont have two out of three. France certainly has the athleticism and technique. People would question their mentality, just in terms of they havent won a big event yet, but I wouldnt knock them there. On any given day in our game, any of these top four teams can beat each other.But they have [technique and athleticism] locked down.What they dont have, as Ellis gently alluded to, is a trophy or medals from a major tournament to show for all the progress. France lost 3-1 to the United States in a 2011 World Cup semifinal and 2-1 to Japan in an Olympic semifinal a year later. France fell victim to a dubious format in the World Cup a year ago -- even as group stage winners, the French were forced into a quarterfinal against Germany. On a day when the French had the better of play but couldnt put away the game, the country nonetheless exited in a penalty shootout.The small sample size notwithstanding, France struggles in big games to finish what it starts.Technically, possession, I think we are pretty good, Abily said of the state of the program. Its our strength, but it needs now to be maybe better -- well, for sure -- in front of the goal. To be more killer, you know.Its great to keep the ball, to play well, but it misses something.That again reared its head this spring, when France, despite some notable absences due to injury, played generally appealing soccer without ever scoring a goal against England, Germany or the United States in the SheBelieves Cup.This problem to score has been the problem for France since the last eight to 10 years, coach Philippe Bergeroo lamented with a perfectly Gallic shrug of the shoulders after that event.At some point, fans will want results. The accessibility and relatability of players will lose its luster. Expectations, in this case, represent their own brand of equality.I think we have to win because [coming close] is almost boring for them, Abily said.That would be a missed opportunity of almost tragic proportions, not because wins and losses really matter that much but because of the potential influence the French team can have.France might be the most diverse team in the womens game, certainly among the handful of elite championship contenders. It is a reflection of a changing society, changing not without tension, not just because of gender but all the labels with which it is too easy to separate each other and isolate ourselves.The daughter of an Algerian immigrant, Houra-dHommeaux was taken aback by the attention she received for a professionally shot photo in which many assumed she wore a hijab -- It was just a capuche, she said, using the French word for hood. But in the same breath, she noted she was proud to represent her faith as a womens soccer player.You see on our national team, there are a lot of black girls or Arabic girls, Houra-dHommeaux said. I think soccer in France, its easier for everybody. ... Its easy to play football in France, and its good for all the people to see that we are white, we are black, we are Muslim, we are Catholic or something like that, but we can play football. Everybody can play football. And I like it for that.Having three years to use the momentum of a gold medal to continue to build the game, at both the youth and professional levels, would set up a potentially remarkable World Cup. To keep this particular team in the spotlight could resonate far beyond the field at a time when others try to divide and terrorize.If we can do it in sport, we can do it in life, Abily said of the diversity. Its important to think like this, especially after the terrorist attacks [in Paris in 2015]. Its very good to be like this now, even more than before. ' ' '