It’s 7-1 Dodgers in the 7th inning and Bob Howry has (predictably) given up a couple runs after Merkin Valdez left with the bases loaded and nobody out.

I think it’s safe to tag this one as a loss.

Oh no, wait. 9-1 Dodgers.

Why is Bochy still using Bob Howry??? Get him off the team!!! He doesn’t contribute anything!!! He’s Tyler Walker all over again!!!

Okay, breathe.

It’s just hard to grasp what has happened to the Giants in the past couple weeks. Ever since they came off that amazing homestand where they swept the Rockies, they’ve been slowly spiraling downward, whereas it’s been the opposite with Colorado, who has been 9-1 since then.

Talk about cruel irony for the orange and black.

But while it is ironic, I wouldn’t say it was a horrible twist of fate or anything like that, because that would suggest that the Giants had a lot of bad luck. But if the Giants don’t make the Wild Card (and each day it’s looking more and more unlikely), it will be wholly their own fault. 

Everyone knew going into offseason that our biggest need was hitting, yet the front office did nothing about it until the All Star Break when the Giants were unexpectedly in contention. Yes, Freddy Sanchez was a nice pick up, but what was stopping Sabean from making a move to pick up a solid hitter in the offseason? Why did he have to wait until halfway through the season? Besides not having a lot of power, this team as a whole is often terribly impatient at the plate (hence why Kuroda only had a pitch count of 62 going into the 7th inning tonight against, and it’s been well documented that they can’t play small ball through their lack of bunting skills.

Speaking of which, that reminds me of an interesting quote I heard earlier today. As I think I’ve mentioned before, this summer I’ve been working as an intern at KNBR. Today was my last day since I’ll be going back to college next weekend, and I worked a KNBR sponsored client batting practice at the ballpark. It was a pretty cool event that gave people an opportunity to hit and field at AT&T Park, and along with that they got to meet former Giants Vida Blue and Tito Fuentes. After the batting practice a Q&A session was held in the visitors’ dugout where guests got to ask Vida and Tito questions about their careers, although not many people asked questions; a lot of it was the two of them going off and telling their own stories, which was just as interesting and entertaining. Anyway, at one point Vida Blue brought up the Giants’ inability to do the little things and used Kevin Frandsen’s pop-up bunt in the eighth inning of a game against the Padres a few days ago as an example. He essentially said that you can’t do that because it’s Major League Baseball, and he joked, “Tito could’ve gone up and gotten it done.” While Vida was mixing humor into what he said here, you could tell he was still being serious, and I just found it interesting that he was pretty blunt about it.

On a side note, although I’m only nineteen and therefore wasn’t alive to see Fuentes and Blue when they played, I appreciated being around them today. They were both really friendly and outgoing and interacted with fans the entire time, with Fuentes giving people coming up to bat hitting tips and Blue throwing a short live pitching session to some of the clients. I also thought Vida was especially classy when he called for a moment of silence during the Q&A to honor the victims of 9/11.

I really don’t enjoy complaining about my baseball team; like I’ve said before, in the end no matter how critical I get of the Giants, they will still always be my favorite team. But lately they haven’t been giving us fans much to be happy about, and tonight was no exception. They got shut down by another not-so-great pitcher in Hiroki Kuroda, who at one point retired nineteen batters in a row. It seems like ever since the final game against the Rockies during the homestand, the momentum they kept rebuilding has finally run out. Tonight they had an opportunity to start building it back up again after a poor series against a poor team, but instead they got blown out by their archrival with one of their aces on the mound. Needless to say, this was the worst case scenario in terms of how to start the biggest six-game stretch of the year.

I really want to believe in this team. I’ll fully admit I was one of the people who had very, very little hope left after the 14-inning game in Colorado. Well, they proved me wrong and stormed back to tie the Rockies in the Wild Card the same week I thought they were done. But based on how the past few series’ have gone for the Giants, my hope is starting to fade.

I was going to end this entry with, “Oh well, at least the Rockies lost”, but no. They came back against the Padres and won 4-1.