oof.

It feels like the Dodgers have seven guys who can eke a home run six inches to a foot past some wall, corner or part of their crappy park stuck in a ditch – sorry, manmade ravine – atop the trapped souls of native, indigenous life.

Like coddling together a “five” with three dominoes, it’s a pathetic way to score points. Yet they’ve won the division for nearly a decade with these solo shots. They did it to us again with Trevor Bauer on the mound. Every run scored in this game was a solo shot. LaMonte Wade Jr and Brandon Crawford went yard for the orange and black. Betts, Muncy and Smith for the Bums, Giants 2, Dodgers 3

The next night was the one that hurt. Walker Beuhler outpitched our ace, and Kevin Gausman is now (8-2), having lost his last two outings, while Beuhler moved to (8-1). The Dodgers’ fifth win in a row was our third consecutive loss after giving Sunday to the A’s. Now it feels like the tide is turning. Our three month run in first place in the NL West is coming to an end. Their second guy beat our ace, Giants 1 Dodgers 3

And sure enough we lost the first of four in Arizona last night Giants 3, D’backs 5, while the Bums won in Washington 6-2 on a Max Muncy grand slam. The Dodgers have won six in a row as we have lost four in a row and they are now only a half game back.

Stalled on 50 wins, the Giants miss Evan Longoria’s bat. Donovan Solano, Austin Slater, Darren Ruf and Alex Dickerson are all slumping. Brandon Belt’s knee gave out. LaMonte Wade, Jr. is making the most of his opportunities. Tauchman has been great in the field, but has utterly fallen off at the plate. But Tauchman’s my Center Fielder. Only the vets are hitting consistently. Posey, Crawford.

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reports Belt is opting to rehab his knee rather than undergo surgery, which was expected after it was determined Belt suffered only minimal structural damage to his knee. Doctors agreed rehab was a viable option. There’s no current timeline for his return.

Susan Slusser reported that Longo returned to baseball activities last Friday. He has been on the injured list with a sprained left shoulder since that crazy collision with B-Craw on June 6th. He had been targeting a mid-July return so remains on track to be activated around All-Star break.

The Giants need Longoria, Crawford, and Posey on the field in a one game play-in. It feels like everybody else is tradable. They need Belt, Yastrzemski and Solano to perform, but if they don’t, they are really valuable in trade. We were lucky to get some big hits from Casali. Flores is solid, but inconsistent. Dickerson, Ruf and Slater struggle. We will NEED to make moves if we want to stay in the hunt.

NL West

San Francisco Giants (50 – 30)

Los Angeles Dodgers (50 – 31)

San Diego Padres (49 – 34) 2.5 games back