San Francisco Giants Up Against It with Arizona's Magic Number at 3

The San Francisco Giants have been hanging on for dear life in the NL West and the NL Wild Card race for the past two weeks.  They had run off eight straight wins heading into the three game series against Los Angeles and had pulled within 5.5 games of Arizona.  The Giants then ran into Clayton Kershaw, their team wide kryptonite.

The Giants have had a hard enough time scoring runs this year, and facing a guy like Kershaw spells doom for any winning streak.  The Giants had not beat Kershaw since August 2010 and this season he has toyed with their line up each time he has taken the mound against San Francisco.

The Giants countered with their ace, Tim Lincecum who would be squaring off against Kershaw for the fourth time in 2011.  Lincecum vs. Kershaw has proven to be a harsh reminder of the lack of offensive support that Lincecum receives routinely.  Going into Tuesday night’s game, the Giants had scored zero earned runs off Kershaw in his previous three starts against Lincecum in 2011 while Lincecum had given up two earned runs to the Dodgers in those starts.

Lincecum was good in this game, settling down after the second inning and putting the Giants in a position to be able to win, if they could score some runs.  Kershaw was better, not much better but once again, he was better.

The Giants had been averaging more than six runs per game during their eight game winning streak, but that came to a grinding halt against the leading Cy Young candidate in the NL, Kershaw.  The Giants had their opportunity to score and even win the game when Kershaw was removed in the eighth inning.

After extremely light hitting Chris Stewart somehow hit a home run off Kershaw, the next two batters walked prompting Kershaw's removal from the game.  The Giants now had two on and their two best hitters coming to bat in Pablo Sandoval and Carlos Beltran.  Both struck out and Beltran never even took the bat off his shoulder.  The scoring opportunity squandered, the Giants would lose the game 2-1.

At this point of the year, that loss is very hard to take.  The Giants loss, coupled with Arizona's loss makes it potentially devastating.  With the Giants tragic number in the NL West race standing at three, they play two more games in Los Angeles before heading to Arizona on Friday.  Arizona has one more game before the weekend showdown as they have an off day on Thursday.

The Giants best case scenario would be to win the final two games against the Dodgers while Arizona loses to Pittsburgh in their series finale.  In that case, the Giants would arrive in Arizona Thursday night four games behind Arizona at the start of three head to head games with the Diamondbacks and six left to play overall.  That would give the Giants the opportunity to directly impact their chances in the race by sweeping the three game series and head home for the final three games of the regular season with a one game deficit.

The worst case scenario would be the Giants lose the next two games in Los Angeles and Arizona beats the Pirates tonight.  This would eliminate the Giants from the NL West race before they take off for the short flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix, leaving the final six games of the season meaningless.

The Giants squandered not only a game Tuesday night but an opportunity that may very well prove to be the final nail in their coffin.  It's not over yet, but hope has it's bags packed and waiting by the door.