Rockies 6, Giants 1:

The Force is with beleaguered first baseman Ian Desmond in Colorado’s win.

SAN FRANCISCO» Some disgruntled Rockies fans have cast Ian Desmond as Darth Vader, but on “Star Wars Night” at AT&T Park, Desmond played the part of Luke Skywalker.

The first baseman broke out of his funk by blasting a three-run homer and later added an RBI double as the Rockies beat the Giants 6-1 Friday night.

The Rockies have nearly caught the sputtering Diamondbacks for the National League West lead.

The Colorado victory, coupled with Arizona’s 3-1 loss to the Mets, left the Rockies a half-game out of first place.

Arizona has lost eight of its past nine games.

Colorado left-hander Kyle Freeland delivered another solid start, pitching 6M innings, allowing five hits, striking out five and walking just one. Freeland’s only major mistake was a solo homer by Giants leadoff hitter Gorky Hernandez in the first inning.

Freeland pitched into the seventh for his fifth consecutive game and delivered his fifth consecutive quality start. He got jammed up in the seventh, giving up solid singles to Evan Longoria and Brandon Crawford. With two outs, manager Bud Black replaced Freeland with right-hander Bryan Shaw, who faced pinch hitter Brandon Belt. Belt is not only a left-handed batter, he’s also been swinging a hot bat. But Shaw struck out Belt looking, much to the chagrin of the Giants fans.

Desmond strode to the plate in the fourth inning with a .166 average on his shoulders, with one hit in his last 10 at-bats. Since his two-home run game in New York against the Mets on May 6, the first baseman had been in a 3-for-34 drought that included 13 strikeouts. Desmond missed badly on Derek Holland’s 78 mph curveball, and it looked as if he might leave Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story stranded. But when Holland threw Desmond a 90 mph sinker, Desmond turned on the pitch for his three-run no-doubter, propelling Colorado to a 3-1 lead.

Desmond made it 4-1 in the sixth with a two-out double to chase home Arenado, who had led off with a double. For all of Desmond’s struggles at the plate, he now has seven homers, fourth-most on the team, with 21 RBIs.

The Rockies added two more in the ninth on a Charlie Blackmon home run that scored Gerardo Parra, who singled and stole second.