Giants lose at home again, fall 5-3 to Phillies

I'm not going to lie. I watched the game from a karaoke bar. Here are the songs that I sang:

• "Interstate Love Song"
• "Humpty Dance"
• "Runnin' With The Devil"

I knocked them all out of the park. The first one was a little shaky, and I didn't have the mic on for the first verse of the second one, but other than that, you couldn't even tell that I was an amateur. I'm so good.

I didn't really watch the game, though. Not like I usually do. So I'm not going to pretend that my navel-gazing is going to suffice for a proper recap. I'll instead bullet point a few quick observations from what I was able to pick up:

• I don't think we can be mad at Jeremy Affeldt for another two or three blowups. He's been so good this year -- so, so good and unheralded -- that it seems like the worst kind of nitpicky nonsense to complain about one stray fastball out of the hundred Affeldt has thrown this year.
  
  Next time, though. Grumble grumble grumble. We're all on notice.
  
  
• Pretty sure we can be mad at Tim Flannery, though. Here's where the ball was picked up:
  
  
  
  

  Here's where Pablo Sandoval -- literally Pablo Sandoval -- was when the ball was picked up:
  
  
  

  Someone on Twitter asked for this, and it's definitely still relevant:

  Tim Flannery is like Affeldt in this situation -- if you wait until he screws up, you're going to miss the good things he does. I mention Flannery less in this space than the ushers around AT&T Park. That's a good thing. Other fans complain about their third-base coaches all the time. Those coaches are probably morons. In the seven-plus seasons that Flannery has been the third-base coach for the Giants, I've been irate at him, what, maybe two or three times a season? If you remember the days of Wendell Kim and Sonny Jackson, you'll know that Flannery is something of a gift.

  That decision to send Sandoval sure sucked tonight, though.

  Man, did that decision suck.

  Not like the next guy wasn't going to ground out.

• I'm proud of the Giants for scoring three runs against Cole Hamels. I'm proud of Michael Morse for hitting a dinger against him. Boy, when that ball left the yard, didn't you feel like the Giants were going to win? Wasn't that a good feeling? Wish I had some stummies to let me relive that moment. Go Giants.
  
  
• Madison Bumgarner ... probably still good.
  
  
• It feels dirty rooting against the Pirates. And yet, screw you, Pirates.

For a few minutes, it felt like the Giants were a normal team that was going to win in a normal way. Then they lost in an abnormal way. I was not in favor of that.

Comfort yourself with the idea that the Giants aren't out of the race yet. Other than that ... I got nothin' for you, man. There were a lot of ways in which that game would have been much cooler. None of them happened.

I don't know. It's not like I'm a proud man. Watch that video again. See if it doesn't make you feel better.