NL West	W	L	GB
LA	78	60	-	Have now won 4 straight.
GIANTS	74	64	4	Need series win tonight.
Wild Card	W	L	GB
GIANTS	74	64	-	13 of last 24 at home.
St Louis	73	64	-	Looking to 4-game set in SF.
New York	73	66	1	"Thor" goes for sweep.

Yesterday

Giants defeated Colorado, 3-2.

LA defeated Arizona, 5-2.

St Louis defeated Pittsburgh, 9-7, and New York beat Cincinnati, 5-3.

Today

Giants finish up at Colorado; 8:40 PM EDT (6:40 local). Alberto Suarez against our old friend, Jorge DeLaRosa, who pitched well in two starts against the Giants earlier this year.

LA finishes up with Arizona before going on the road.

St Louis sends Mike Leake out to try and sweep Pittsburgh; Noah Syndergaard has the same task for the Mets in Cincinnati.  

Last Night's Game

Jeff Samardzija quietly continued his string of strong starts with seven innings of four hit ball, striking out nine, and it's a shame he didn't get the win. Since that bad patch in early July, "Shark" has been sharp over his last six starts. But he was trailing 2-1 when pulled for a pinch-hitter in the top of the eighth. Men on first and second and nobody out, and up came... Ehire Adrianza? With Jarrett Parker, Mac Williamson, Brandon Belt, and Joe Panik available? But Adrianza can bunt, and he laid down a beauty, which paid off when Eduardo Nunez' grounder to short brought home the tying run. In the ninth, Buster Posey hustled around to second when Daniel DeScalso threw wildly on his grounder, and Hunter Pence beat out an infield hit, Posey alertly taking third. Up stepped Kelby Tomlinson, who's become a fan favorite in much the same way Matt Duffy was. "Clark Kent" ripped an RBI single for the game-winner, certified good a few minutes later after Santiago Casilla did not blow the save.

Though it took "small ball" to do it, the reshuffled lineup did provide some spark, along with seven hits, the most the Giants have had in a solid week. On the bench were Belt, Panik, and Denard Span; in the lineup were Tomlinson, Gorkys (1-for-3 with a walk and a run scored) Hernandez, and Trevor Brown, catching with Posey at first base. Hey, it worked, as did the obligatory Smith-Romo-Lopez tango in the eighth. 

NL West	W	L	GB
LA	77	60	-	Considering all the injuries...
GIANTS	73	64	4	Road trip can't end soon enough.
Wild Card	W	L	GB
GIANTS	73	64	-	Held to two hits in Denver.
St Louis	72	64	-	Ready to take WC lead?
New York	72	66	1	Colon shuts out Reds.

Yesterday

Giants lost at Colorado, 6-0.

LA romped over Arizona, 10-2.

St Louis defeated Pittsburgh, 12-6, and New York blanked Cincinnati, 5-0.

Today

Giants at Colorado; 8:40 EDT (6:40 local time). Jeff Samardzija goes up against lefty Tyler Anderson, who has managed a 3.43 ERA at Coors Field. "Shark" had a good start at Coors back in April; Anderson pitched well but took the loss at AT&T Park two months ago.

LA again hosts Arizona.

St Louis is at Pittsburgh again and New York at Cincinnati. All evening starts.

Yesterday's Game

Matt Moore is an undeniably talented pitcher, with a strong upside, and one significant weakness: he walks people. It cost him, and the Giants, the game yesterday, After two uneventful innings, Moore opened the third with back-to-back walks on ten pitches. An infield single loaded the bases, but a glimmer of hope appeared when Moore gave up a sac fly, allowing one run but giving himself a chance to get out of a big inning.  Then came an intentional walk to Nolan Arenado, reloading the bags, and Carlos Gonzalez followed with a grand slam. One out later, Nick Hundley added the exclamation point with another homer. After that a single, a wild pitch, yet another walk-- and Moore was outta there, not even allowed to face pitcher Chad Bettis. And given the big lead, Bettis did his best Cy Young impersonation the rest of the way, holding the Giants to two lousy hits as he finished his first complete game of the season on 103 pitches. Yes, it was that bad.

When you give up walks, the cost isn't just the runners put on base; it's the confidence built in the next batter, who knows you're gonna have to come in there with a strike, and soon. And when a wild pitcher issues an intentional walk, the next batter's confidence soars. Don't tell us Gonzalez wasn't sitting and waiting on that fastball strike moments before he launched the grand salami. With the kind of defense the Giants have in the field, there's just no excuse for a pitcher not to throw strikes and let his fielders make the plays.  

On a more pleasant note, rookie left-hander Ty Blach made his major-league debut yesterday and pitched three quiet innings, allowing one hit and one walk on 40 pitches. Blach is a month shy of his 26th birthday, so his time is right now. He had a 1.14 WHIP in 26 starts in the hitter-friendly PCL. He may be only 14 months younger than Madison Bumgarner, but left-handed starters are always welcome here.

NL West	W	L	GB
LA	76	60	-	Biggest lead of the year.
GIANTS	73	63	3	Seven blown saves for Casilla.
Wild Card	W	L	GB
GIANTS	73	63	-	0-for-8 with RISP yesterday.
St Louis	71	64	-	Can put a hurting on Bucs.
New York	71	66	1	Took 2 of 3 from Nats.
Pittsburgh	67	67	3.5	Six straight losses now.

Yesterday

Giants lost at Chicago, 3-2, in thirteen innings, after blowing a ninth-inning lead, thus losing three out of four in the series.

LA defeated San Diego, 7-4.

St Louis defeated Cincinnati, 5-2, New York beat Washington again, 5-1, while Pittsburgh was massacred, 10-0, at home by Milwaukee and Miami dropped off the map with another loss at Cleveland.

Today

Giants at Colorado; 2 PM MDT, 4 PM EDT, their fourth straight daytime start.  Matt Moore against Chad Bettis, whom the Giants beat back in May. Don't worry about the Rockies catching up; they're 11 games out, but they can put a major dent in the Giants' prospects in this series regardless. 

LA stays at home against Arizona.

St Louis moves on to Pittsburgh with a chance to essentially eliminate the sinking Pirates from the postseason mix. Conversely, the Bucs can make up a lot of lost ground quickly if they get off the mat here.

New York is at Cincinnati.

Yesterday's Game

Santiago Casilla's seven blown saves are tied for the major-league lead, and if there's a more tellingly depressing statistic available this morning, we don't want to know about it. The latest fiasco unfolded at Wrigley Field yesterday, after Johnny Cueto had pitched seven stout innings in a good duel with the venerable John Lackey and bequeathed a fragile 2-1 lead to the bullpen. Casilla immediately gave up a leadoff double to Addison Russell, obligingly wild-pitched him to third, and then surrendered an RBI single to Jason Heyward. With the horse now safely galloping down the road, Casilla shut the door on that ninth inning, but few Giants fans would have risked a plugged nickel for the team's chances going into extra innings. A series of relievers-- including the long-lost Joe Nathan, of all people-- held the fort through 12, before the inevitable happened in the 13th, courtesy of Mr Heyward again. Hard to fault loser Matt Reynolds-- the game was lost in the ninth.

The Giants thus drop three games behind LA, with St Louis and the Mets creeping up from behind in the Wild-Card Stakes. All four games of this Cubs series were one-run affairs, all could have gone either way, and the dramatic differences between the two clubs were highlighted. The Cubs have a little more depth and power in the lineup, and they have a lot more depth and reliability in the bullpen. 

Casilla's seven blown saves-- and don't it feel more like seventeen, sport fans?-- are only one more than the Dodgers' Kenley Jansen, but Jansen has converted 41 of 47 (87%) while Casilla is 30 of 37 (81%).   Most of the guys at the top of the list have blown about three or four; only Baltimore's Zach Britton is perfect (40 for 40). No one really expects perfection, but seven blown saves when the standard is three or four equals-- well, it equals three games out of first place in the standings, is what it equals. 

Bruce Bochy is pretty much out of options at this point in the season, especially with the only other viable candidate, Derek Law, on the DL. Sergio Romo, of course, has closer experience, as does Nathan, an All-Star closer for years after we traded him away-- but Nathan is 42, he's pitched a total of three innings in the last two years, and hasn't pitched well since 2013. Add to that the difficulty of finding an assignment for Casilla if he is demoted, and you get the sense that "Boch,", regarding closers, is gonna dance with the gal what brung 'im, even if she does have buck teeth and two left feet.  

Notes

Reviewing the top "closers" (pitchers ranked by save opportunities) we see, near the top, Francisco Rodriguez, the once-fearsome "K-Rod" of the then-Anaheim Angels, whom the Giants faced in the 2002 World Series. He was a rookie on that team then, as was yesterday's starting pitcher Lackey. Oddly enough, the former strikeout king now has by far the lowest strikeout percentage of any top closer (44 in 50 innings). Jansen and Aroldis Chapman are the leaders in that department...  Shades of Roger Craig: Ehire Adrianza drove in Eduardo Nunez with a perfect bunt on the suicide squeeze yesterday in the fifth...  Heyward dropped a routine fly ball that led to the Giants' first run, but he more than made up for it by driving in all three of the Cubs' runs... Russell and Anthony Rizzo also had three hits each, but the Cubs stranded 11 runners... Brandon Belt was beaned by lefty Rob Zastryzny in the sixth, but walked it off and stayed in the game... Given the state of the bullpen, it's only right to credit Romo, Javier Lopez, George Kontos, Josh Osich, Corey Gearrin, Steve Okert, and Nathan for four spotless innings of relief.  It was Kontos, Osich, and Gearrin who performed a left-right-left one-inning minuet ably choreographed by Jerome Robbins-- er, Bruce Bochy-- which, among other things, helped stretch the game to its four-hour and twenty-three minute duration.   

NL West	W	L	GB
LA	75	60	-	Lead's held steady for ten days.
GIANTS	73	62	2	Good baserunning wins games.
Wild Card	W	L	GB
GIANTS	73	62	-	10 hits in last 3 games.
St Louis	70	64	-	Beaten bad in Cincinnati.
New York	70	66	1	Gained ground on WC rivals.
Pittsburgh	67	66	2.5	Five straight losses.
Miami	68	68	3	On the bubble at .500.

Yesterday

Giants defeated Chicago, 3-2.

LA defeated San Diego, 5-1.

New York defeated Washington, 3-1, St Louis lost at Cincinnati, 9-1, Pittsburgh and Miami both also lost.

Today

Giants finish up with Chicago; 1:20 local time, 2:20 EDT at the Friendly Confines. 

LA has an afternoon start against San Diego at Chavez Ravine.

New York's on the ESPN Sunday Night game at home against Washington, while St Louis is at Cincinnati, Miami at Cleveland, and Pittsburgh at home against Milwaukee, all afternoon starts.

Yesterday's Game

Madison Bumgarner struck out ten and walked none over six innings, and the Giants scored all three of their runs on Cubs mistakes. Bum's opponent, ace Jake Arrieta, threw two wild pitches in his six innings, and they may have cost him the game.  It was a playoff-style atmosphere, with strong pitching, "small ball," and bold baserunning throughout. Three of the game's five runs scored without a ball leaving the infield, and the Cubs twice had bases loaded but couldn't score.  In the sixth, Brandon Crawford, who had singled, stole second, and then third when he saw Javy Baez was playing too far off the bag. Arrieta's second wild pitch of the game then brought him home with what turned out to be the winning run. Two innings earlier, Arrieta's first wild pitch moved Joe Panik into scoring position, and Eduardo Nunez drove him in. And in the top of the first a wild throw on Hunter Pence's grounder allowed Angel Pagan to score. Not to be outdone, the Cubs also stole a run in the fifth, when Arrieta's roller pulled Nunez out of position and Baez came all the way around from second to score. Bright moments: Hunter Strickland, after loading the bases in the seventh, being allowed to pitch his way out of it-- and doing so; Santiago Casilla earning his 30th save on a crucial double-play ball with one on and none out in the ninth.

NL West	W	L	GB
LA	74	60	-	Not exactly running away with it.
GIANTS	72	62	2	Tough losses pilin' up.
Wild Card	W	L	GB
GIANTS	72	62	-	Bum faces Arrieta today.
St Louis	70	63	-	Haven't missed playoffs since '10.
New York	69	66	2	Royals in same boat in AL.
Pittsburgh	67	65	2.5	Cubs' magic number is 13.
Miami	68	67	3	2 wild-cards, 2 World Series.

Yesterday

Giants lost at Chicago, 2-1.

LA lost at home to San Diego, 4-2. 

All the wild-card contenders lost, too.

Everybody lost.

Today

Giants at Chicago, 1:20 local time, 2:20 EDT. The battle of the aces: Madison Bumgarner v. Jake Arrieta. Bum has the better ERA, but Arrieta has 16 wins.

LA hosts San Diego in a twilight start.

St Louis is at Cincinnati, Miami at Cleveland in interleague play, New York hosts Washington and Pittsburgh's home against Milwaukee. All evening games except a 1 PM start in the Queen City.

Yesterday's Game

Jon Lester needed 102 pitches for his complete-game three-hit win, his 15th. Alberto Suarez was game, allowing just five baserunners, but he was pulled after five for a pinch-hitter, as Bruce Bochy is obviously aware of the team's late struggles at the plate. The Giants have single-handedly turned Wrigley Field into a pitchers' park for this series so far, with a total of six hits in two games, Two of those hits have been home runs by Hunter Pence, and while it's great to see the big guy regaining his stroke, it'd be nice if he had a few more teammates on base when he made contact.  Four relievers held the Cubs in check over the final three; it seems to us our bullpen fares much better when we're slightly behind than slightly ahead.  

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.

Oh, Thirty Days!

With apologies to Chuck Berry, we begin the 15th installment of this series, in which the San Francisco Giants enter the final month of the season as contenders for the postseason and a World Series championship. As it stands today, the Giants are 72-60, a game and a half behind the rival LA Dodgers in the National League West, and two games ahead of the competition in the wild-card derby. There are exactly thirty games left between now and the season finale scheduled for October 2 at AT&T Park against, yep, the Dodgers. The script writers, as it were, have set up the scene most nicely. Now, how will it play?

The first act opens on the road with four games, starting tonight, at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, the team with the best record in baseball and the team deemed "most likely to win a championship after 106 years of frustration." The Giants took two of three from the Cubs back in May when things were ridin' high, but that means little now. This is a team that will likely bar the door to the World Series for the rest of the NL; the Giants need at least a split to keep the flickering flame of their sputtering season from going out.  After a road trip to Colorado and Arizona beginning on Labor Day, the Giants remain in California for the final twenty games, 13 of which are at home. All things considered, it's a favorable schedule in a season that has mixed favor and disfavor in equally sized portions.

On May 11, the Giants won a bizarre, thirteen-inning affair in interleague play against the Toronto Blue Jays, a game they probably should have lost. The win set their record at 18-18. Over the next two months the Giants went 39-15, opened up a seven-game lead over LA, and for a short time even took away the Cubs' reputation as the hottest team in the game. That made the post-All Star break pratfall all the more agonizing. It's been a 15-27 downward spiral, beginning with a sweep at the hands of the San Diego Padres and six straight losses. The nadir came just last week. After losing the last two of a four-game set with the New York Mets at home, it was two quick ugly losses in LA, which sealed the Dodgers' comeback and vaulted them into the division lead by three games. In one game the Giants couldn't pitch; in the next they couldn't hit. At that point it was difficult for even a dedicated fan to believe this squad looked like a contender, despite the standings.

In the midst of all this losing, the front office made a series of moves intended to revitalize the team, in the manner of the Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro trades in 2012 or the Jake Peavy pickup in 2014. But while those moves had the look of  a solid contender building strength upon strength, these seemed like the desperate maneuvers of a struggling team trying to fill obvious holes. Top pitching prospect Phil Bickford, plus our old friend, young Andrew Susac, went to Milwaukee for lefty reliever Will Smith. With Jeremy Affeldt retired and neither Javier Lopez nor Josh Osich reliable, left-handed relief was an obvious team weakness, but the team paid dearly for a pitcher who's been decidedly mediocre since coming aboard. Days later, popular Matt Duffy, on the DL at the time but coming off one of the most valuable single seasons in team history, went to Tampa for another lefty, starter Matt Moore. This moved utilityman Eduardo Nunez, obtained from Minnesota for prospect Lucius Fox a few weeks earlier, into Duffy's place at third. It's been a long time since the Giants traded away as productive a position player as Duffy, and longer still since they gave up one so young (Matt Williams was 30 in 1996, five years older than Duffy is today).

Certainly Moore fills a need; along with the beleaguered bullpen, the back end of the Giants' starting rotation has been a problem all year. Matt Cain and Jake Peavy, now both on the DL, have delivered just enough decent starts, among many more awful ones, to somehow stay in the mix,. With Jeff Samardzija cooling off after his hot start, the chance to add a good southpaw starter to the group was irresistible. The price was steep. Moore's contribution will ultimately decide its value: will he provide enough improvement over the Cain/Peavy combo to justify the decline in production from Duffy to Nunez?

The jury was still out on that when Moore made his fifth start as a Giant in the finale of that series at Chavez Ravine. He'd previously gone 0-2 with two quality starts out of four. With the team facing a sweep and a four-game deficit, Moore delivered, beautifully, in near-historic fashion. Always vulnerable to the base on balls, he issued three in eight and two-thirds innings, but did not allow a hit. One out away from the record books, he saw Cory Seager finally bloop a soft but clean single into right field. Moore didn't get the no-hitter, but his performance seemed to lift his woozy, punch-drunk ballclub off the mat. The Giants won that game 4-0, came home, took two of three from Atlanta, and just completed a two-game split with Arizona. It was a winning homestand, if a short one.

As the Chicago series opens, the rosters expand to 40 for the stretch drive, and this may help the Giants more than most. Ty Blach, winner of 13 games with a 3.49 ERA in hitter-friendly Sacramento, may be slated to start some games-- heck, he may even start tomorrow at Wrigley. Mike Reynolds can help the bullpen, especially since our best reliever, Derek Law, just went on the DL. Mac Williamson, one of the few Giants who can consistently hit the long ball (6 HR in 48 AB), just came off the DL, and Kelby Tominson is now back with the big club, as are southpaws Josh Osich and Steven Okert.

After all this, the Giants still have the fourth-best record in the league. All a team can ask for is the chance to win and get to the playoffs. Recent history has shown us that for the San Francisco Giants, getting there is the hardest part. The door is open. What's past is past. Let's go!