Update: I wrote this whole wrap after the sixth inning, assuming the worst. And hey, I was right aside from the last hurrah in the ninth. Obligatory LOLeague and BeatLA.

Things looked good for a while there. The Giants hung with the Puigs for five whole innings, and a small part of me wondered if Mike Kickham would turn out to be some kind of crazy Dodger-killer, some secret weapon who would charge bull-like at anything blue. Sure he gave up a two-run homer to Mark Ellis, but that’s basically what Mark Ellis does. I gave up two homers to Mark Ellis while eating my cereal this morning. It’s a force majeure that just can’t be avoided.
But then the wheels came off. Hanley Ramirez, still the least likeable player even before he donned the Dodger blue, winged one off the foul pole just to remind us how close we came to avoiding tragedy. Then Jake Dunning made a bad throw he shouldn’t have made and that was that was that.
Remember when we actually felt confident in the Giants to come from behind and win games they were losing? No I swear, that was earlier this year.

And the worst part is that the Dodgers didn’t even play that well. Puig was a non-factor, Kemp didn’t do much, and Fife managed to stump the Giants with trickery and brainteasers. Clayton Kershaw didn’t even play, the lazy bum. It’s one thing when Puig goes 4-5 with seven homers and Kershaw throws a complete game shutout, but tonight really felt like one bad team just couldn’t keep up with another bad team.
Oh well. At least the standings still like the Giants better than the Dodgers.

On the bright side, the Brandons looked good: Crawford flashed some mighty leather and Belt homered. Buster Posey continued to climb out of his mini slump. Gregor Blanco keeps up his hot streak, and Tim Lincecum didn’t walk anyone. Every inning that George Kontos doesn’t give up runs is a step toward an effective and confident bullpen, Scutaro went another day without causing himself permanent nerve damage, and Ryan Vogelsong has a sweet injury beard. So all in all, not too bad of a day.

Tomorrow please consider beating LA.