"Padres closer Heath Bell dropped the gauntlet on Twitter the other day when he said, "We want SF in the end. We win and they win then we see who's on top."

Looks like that's the way it's going to be.

The Giants leap- frogged San Diego again for first place in the National League West on Sunday by beating Colorado 4-2. For the umpteenth time in a season that now includes 88 wins, matching last year's total, the Giants quickly forgot a harrowing loss and stormed back with a win.

The Giants' final road game of 2010 was a Matt Cain special. He carried a perfect game into the fifth inning and stood five outs from a no-hitter when Jay Payton legged out an infield hit to short on a ball that Juan Uribe misplayed. Cain, undeterred, completed a three-hitter that left the Rockies all but out of the playoff picture.

The Giants lead the Padres by a half-game. The Rockies are 4 1/2 games out of first place and four behind San Diego for the wild card. With a week to go, all signs point to a Padres-Giants dogfight.

"We're right where we want to be. We control it all," first baseman Aubrey Huff said.

Cain was the perfect man to engineer the game that followed Saturday's extra-inning loss. He has not lost since Aug. 18, and the team had won 11 of his prior 13 starts. He is pitching with supreme confidence and thought he had what it took to throw the second no-hitter ever at Coors Field.

"I felt I had good enough stuff," he said. "I felt I had enough oomph left to get the ball down in the zone and throw the ball where I wanted."

Cain cost himself a shot at perfection when he speared Troy Tulowitzki's leadoff grounder in the fifth and bounced a throw to first that Huff could not handle. Cain also issued his only walk in the inning, to Ryan Spilborghs, but struck out Payton and Miguel Olivo to strand the runners."