W     L GB

Philadelphia     76 61 Handled Padres while Giants couldn't

Chicago             74 64 Run differential best in division 

Arizona             71 67   Get Rockies at home; gimme a break

Cincinnati     72 68   Hosting first-place Seattle

Miami     70 67 0.5  Dodgers arriving in town

GIANTS             70 68 1 You can't win if you don't score

Yesterday  

Giants lost at Chicago, 5-0; that's two straight shutouts.

Philadelphia won at San Diego, Arizona defeated Colorado, Cincinnati beat AL West-leading Seattle, and Miami was idle.

Today 

Giants at Chicago; 6:40 local time, 7:40 EDT. Veteran Kyle Hendricks starts for the Cubs. For the Giants, it's Ryan Walker in the "opener" role. 

Philadelphia's at San Diego, Arizona hosts Colorado, Cincinnati hosts Seattle, and Miami has LA at home. 

Yesterday's Game 

If  this business doesn't straighten up right quick, we'll be taking the rest of the month off before you can say, "Jack Robinson!"  Two singles was all the Giants could muster against the Cubs' fine young lefty Justin Steele, who is compiling a Cy Young Award-worthy season (16-3, 2.55, 153 K). The REAL issue is, the Giants right now are making everybody look like Cy Young. They've lost four in a  row and five of six since Alex Cobb's near-no-hitter a week ago. Except for a six-run third-inning outburst last Thursday, the Giants have scored 1, 1, 3, 1, 0, and 0 runs since then. The starting pitching, except for Tristan Beck on Friday, has been decent, and Logan Webb was better than decent yesterday. But even when the Giants don't get shut out, they tend to score their few runs late in games when they're well behind. This just can't continue. A point of irony is that the Giants' run differential (-10) is better than that of all three teams directly ahead of them. But trends don't win games-- just ask the Padres-- and there are only 24 games left.