He's not only pitching games on a regular basis, but practically pitching in his sleep -- if he gets any.

Tomko (5-9, 4.78 ERA), who has lost five of his last seven games, including Tuesday's 6-4 verdict to the Arizona Diamondbacks, says his troubled season has cost him many a night of tossing and turning as he replays pitches made and pitches he should have made.

"It wasn't a good night, period," said the right-hander, whose major downfall against the D-Backs was an admittedly bad pitch to Chad Tracy in the sixth inning, a pitch that wound up in the right-field arcade for a two-run homer.

Ouch.

It never should have happened, with Tomko ordered to pitch around Tracy, give him nothing to hit.

"It was a mistake on my part," said the veteran. "I was leaving balls over the middle of the plate inside against lefties all night. If I'm going to waste pitches, I should waste them away. It's my fault."

Manager Felipe Alou winced when Tracy's ball flew skyward, knowing what might have been.

"In that situation, I probably should have gone ahead and walked the batter," said Alou. "If he gets a base hit, then it's just a one-run deficit, and that makes it a different game. They hit the ball extremely hard in that inning, and when that happens, you don't like to put more guys on base."

Tomko has had an unusually frustrating campaign, to be sure. He was pitching fairly well but getting no run support, yet still feeling things would turn around.

Oh, they did all right -- a perfect circle: from bad to good, back to bad again.

"I think I handled things this week, trying to stay positive going into this start after the Minnesota game [4 2/3 innings, nine hits, seven runs], but what else can I do?

"I can't crawl into a hole and give up," said the 32-year-old. "I'm not gonna quit. I'll take the ball every fifth day and go out and battle the best I can. Is it frustrating? Yes. I'm losing a lot of sleep over it."

Tomko says he's waiting impatiently for the day when he turns his season around.

Tomko gave up three runs in the first, then retired 12 straight D-Backs in one stretch before the visitors' three-run sixth, which also featured back-to-back doubles by Luis Gonzalez and Shawn Green.

What hurts, of course, is the Giants have lost three of their last four games and have sunk to 11 games below .500 at 29-40, 10 games out of first in the National League West.

And every time the club seems on the verge of a winning streak ... oops. That happened Tuesday when it trailed, 3-0, but fought back to hold a 4-3 lead after five frames.

Rookie outfielder Todd Linden hit a mammoth homer to dead center -- his second of the season -- in the second inning and drove in another run on a groundout. Also for the Giants, Pedro Feliz had an RBI double.

Still, Tracy & Co. spoiled what could have been.

"We battled back very well and took the lead, but once we took the lead, bingo, we gave it up," said Alou. "It's been happening early in the game, in the middle of the game and late in the game. We haven't been able to close the door and come back and maybe take a bigger lead."

Feliz's offense has come alive lately, and he had a solid 3-for-5 effort against the D-Backs, raising his overall average to .283. He's bashing the ball at a .458 clip over the last six games.