Giants swept by Padres, limp into Los Angeles

[yuiyoshida]

SAN DIEGO — No rule says a team needs to charge into the postseason like a bull goring tourists in Pamplona. The 1989 Giants lost five of their last six regular-season games and then rolled the Cubs in the National League Championship Series.

Still, that is not the modus operandi of most successful playoff teams, including the 2010 and 2012 Giants, who got into high gear at the right time. In contrast, it was difficult to watch the 2014 team flail all weekend in San Diego and predict a bright October future for it.

The Padres did not merely complete a three-game sweep with Sunday’s 8-2 rout. Over three games, their pitching exposed a Giants offense that can be maddeningly hot and cold. At Petco Park it was frigid, scoring four runs in 27 innings.

Now, the Giants move up the freeway to Dodger Stadium, where a series that once held promise for great drama now looks more like the backdrop for a blue coronation.

Unless the Giants win a series in which they face Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers will celebrate their second consecutive National League West title on the field against San Francisco, which once led the division by 9½ games and now trails by 4½.

http://www.sfgate.com/giants/article/Giants-swept-by-Padres-limp-into-Los-Angeles-5771197.php#photo-6895134