NL West W L GB LA 74 59 - The only division race left in NL. GIANTS 72 61 2 Yet another missed opportunity. Wild Card W L GB GIANTS 72 61 - Need two of next three. St Louis 70 62 - Remember the top two get in. New York 69 65 2 Defending NL champs still here. Pittsburgh 67 64 2.5 Fourth straight wild-card finish? Miami 68 66 3 Stanton seeks a bigger stage. Yesterday Giants lost at Chicago, 5-4. LA was idle. St Louis and Pittsburgh were idle. Miami beat New York. Today Giants at Chicago; 1:20 PM local time, 2:20 EDT. Alberto Suarez against Jon Lester. The Giants smacked Lester around pretty good at the 'Bell back in May, when we were all fat, dumb & happy. LA begins a three-game set at home with San Diego. St Louis opens a weekend series at Cincinnati, Miami's at Cleveland in an interleague series, Pittsburgh's home against Milwaukee, and New York hosts the division-leading Nationals. Last Night's Game It's become something of a Giants mantra: a multi-pitcher late inning that results in a blown lead and ballgame, with both good and bad pitching mixed in. Trouble is, bad tends to drive out good. Starter Jeff Samardzija gave up three runs in the first inning and was gone after four, but the Giants got it back quickly against Mike Montgomery, and it was 3-3 when the bullpen wars commenced. Chicago's threesome retired fifteen straight Giants. Meanwhile, after good innings from Josh Osich and George Kontos, Hunter Strickland immediately got himself into a regular pickle in the seventh: leadoff base hit, walk, bye-bye. In came Will Smith to earn his "Hold," two outs sandwiched around a defensible walk intended to set up a double play. But a righty-righty matchup was evidently too appetizing for Btuce Bochy to resist. Right-hander Corey Gearrin came in and gave up the decisive two-run single  to the eminently right-handed Addison Russell. It was left to the inning's fourth Giants pitcher, Matt Reynolds, to get the third out. And with fifteen straight batters going down meek as mice, that, sports fans, was it.