Goodbye Playoffs

Good, playoff-worthy teams elevate their game against their bitter rivals. Look at what the Phillies have done the past two years against the Mets. What have the Giants done the past two games against the Dodgers? They haven't even shown up to play, losing the first two games of this series by a combined score of 19-4. So much for Mike Krukow's prediction Friday morning on KNBR that the Giants were going to "kick some Dodger ass" this weekend.

The way the Giants offense has been going lately, they need their pitchers to throw no-hitters to have a chance to win. The strategy of scoring barely enough runs to win has run out of steam. Working counts and demonstrating plate discipline is a recipe for continued success, and the Giants don't do any of that. Not just these past two games, but all season, the Giants' hitters have had too many awful at-bats, flailing at breaking balls in the dirt and swinging at the first pitch. No matter how stellar a pitching staff is, it still needs a competent offense to complement it.

Colorado lost against the Padres tonight, so the Giants remain 5.5 back of the Rockies with 20 games remaining. I don't want to hear any talk about how the Giants are still mathematically in the race. It's over. Colorado is just so much better, and they deserve to play in the postseason, while the Giants simply do not. It's been a fun ride this year, as none of us expected this Giants team to be playing meaningful games in mid-September. It's time to give Buster Posey a few starts and have Nate Schierholtz in the lineup every day in evaluating for 2010.