Giants look lifeless when they most need life

We’re at that mystical point in the season where I’m not sure if there’s any value in telling you what happened on Saturday night between the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres. Do you care what happened in the second inning, or the fourth? Are you invested in who played well, and who had an off-day?

Or are you just concerned with who won and what it means?

The Padres won, 6-2. They put 3 runs on Johnny Cueto relatively early, and the Giants felt hopeless. They looked weak and lifeless. The rallies were nonexistent.

I would generally call myself an optimistic Giants fan, but I had a difficult time mustering any hope.

And then, in the eighth inning, trailing 3-0, they made things interesting, loading the bases with no outs. They got a pair of runs in a rather uneventful manner. They should have gotten more, but they made it 3-2, and put themselves in a position to make a ninth inning run.

And then they promptly gave up 3 more runs, and you might have turned off the TV before the bottom half of the inning came on. Or perhaps you left it on, because showering in your pain is usually the right way to handle things.

Either way, the Giants lost an exceedingly stupid game. And now, with one day left in the season, they’re no longer in control of their fate. They need to win tomorrow, and hope the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers.

There’s also a very weird second possible path, wherein the Cardinals lose and then have to play an emergency doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers, and lose both of those games but ... let’s be real.

The Giants need to win and hope the Cardinals — who have a lot to play for — beat the Brewers.

That’s it. That’s the season.