NL West	W	L	GB
LA	84	65	-	Can settle it starting tonight.
GIANTS	79	70	5	The fat lady is warmin' up.
Wild Card	W	L	GB
New York	80	69	-	Royals did it, why not they?
GIANTS	79	70	-	Woulda, coulda, shoulda…
St Louis	78	71	1	33-41 at home, 45-30 on road.

Yesterday

Giants lost to St Louis, 3-0, splitting the four-game series.

LA lost to Arizona, 10-9.

New York defeated Minnesota, 3-2, sweeping the series and taking the wild-card lead. 

Today

Giants at LA; 7:10 PDT, 10:10 EDT. The battle of the lefty aces: Madison Bumgarner and the rested, rejuvenated Clayton Kershaw. They've met twice before this year; LA won both times, although one was decided late when Santiago Casilla blew his first save of the season. Nostalgic, we ain't.

New York is at Atlanta while St Louis is at Colorado.

Yesterday's Game 

You have to have a short memory in this game, they say, but yesterday's perfunctory, almost tepid affair had all the look of a bad hangover from the night before. Two outs away from a possible series sweep and the chance to put maximum pressure on LA, the Giants now limp away with a most unsatisfying split and the feeling that this just isn't meant to be. With Buster Posey given a rest, five singles and 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position sums up the offense. Alberto Suarez went his five innings and deserved better; he was succeeded by a parade of seven relievers over the final four. Three failed to record an out and were yanked after one batter; two-- Corey Gearrin and dear old Matt Cain-- were outstanding.

Desperate Times

No, the Dodgers can't eliminate the Giants outright even with a three-game sweep; it just feels that way. But if the Giants fall behind any further at this stage, the NL West race is over. Thus the Giants absolutely have to take two of three here to have a chance to still catch LA.  With three teams battling for two spots, the wild-card race is much more volatile, but at the same time our two rivals are on the upswing and we aren't. It's all NL West opponents the rest of the way-- six with LA, four with San Diego, three with Colorado. The Giants went 2-5 on the homestand just concluded, so now they'll have to win this thing on the road,