DENVER - Facing elimination from the National League playoffs, Colorado manager Jim Tracy considered the sagging state of his offense before last night's game. Lots of chances but not many runs. "If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, I guess," Tracy said.

What a wonderful holiday season it would be, the lament goes. Not for the Rockies. The ifs and buts ended their season. With a ninth-inning rally, the Phillies defeated the Rockies, 5-4, at Coors Field last night to close out the series in four games. The recurring theme to the series was the Rockies failure to take advantage of opportunities.

The ending served as a cruel tease to the Rockies' season. With two outs in the eighth, the Rockies trailed 2-1 and had runners at first and second. Nothing indicated they could break through. At that point, the Rockies had 10 consecutive failed at-bats with runners in scoring position and were hitting .167 for 30 at-bats with runners in scoring position for the series.

Pinch-hitter Jason Giambi turned it all around. One batter after Phillies left fielder Ben Francisco made a diving catch of Troy Tulowitzki's line drive, Giambi, picked up after Colorado released him during the season, sliced a Ryan Madson cut fastball on his hands to left field for a single that tied the game at 2-2.

For the Rockies, that broke open the dam. Catcher Yorvit Torrealba then drove in the go-ahead runs with a double to center to make it 4-2.

But the rally wasn't able to save Rockies first baseman Todd Helton from a long and cold winter.

Helton is the Rockies' most accomplished hitter, with a career .328 average and one batting title. In this series, he has been their biggest offender in clutch situations.

Helton is 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. That included an out in the first inning of each of the last three games.

This time, Helton batted with runners at first and second with none out and grounded into a force out. The out helped Phillies' starter Cliff Lee escape another first-inning jam. He struck out Tulowitzki, the cleaup hitter, and retired Garrett Atkins on a grounder.

Helton did single in the ninth off Scott Eyre, giving the Rockies runners at first and seciond with two outs.

Atkins was Lee's fall guy in the series, twice going 0-for-2 against him with runners in scoring position. In the first inning of the opener, Atkins flied out to center with two on and two out.

In this game, Atkins also lined into an inning-ending double play in the sixth. Tulowitzki made the blunder of being trapped off second on the play.