Casilla flames out (again); yeah, we're pissed!

Sometimes there are telltale signs a guy's ride is over. And there's there's the blinking neon "kick me" billboard hanging over Santiago Casilla.

@#$%&*!

The worst "closer" in professional baseball choked on another one Friday against Los Angeles, serving up (all together now) a ninth-inning homer in a 3-2 loss at AT&T Park. 

If that guy has a job tomorrow, fans should start turning over taxis. If you were dumb enough to buy a #46 jersey, burn it. Publicly. Jeez, Deadpool doesn't have the vocabulary to describe this level of suckitude.

Casilla has pitched in three games this month. He lost two and blew a save in the third. The problem isn't exactly a mystery. He's done. He's been one of the walking dead since early 2015, but no one has had the sense or nerve to bury the corpse.

It was a frustrating night on multiple levels but the killing blow came courtesy a guy who quite possibly keeps his job through blackmail. Somewhere there's a vault where he's stored ballistic missile codes, old Vicky Morgan tapes. and photos of someone in San Francisco management doing unmentionable things with farm animals.

It spoiled the duel between Johnny Cueto and Clayton Kershaw, who both impressed as they took a tie game into the ninth before Senior Suck turned it to slop.

Johnny Cueto tries to explain the balk rule to Bill Welke, who forgot his rule book. (AP Photo)

It didn't start out like a classic. Of course it didn't end that way either so, whatever.

Cueto found trouble in a hurry. He hit Chase Utley with a pitch to start the game, and Corey Seager cued a 40-foot infield single toward third. A wild pitch later the Dodgers had two men in scoring position and Cueto had thrown a grand total of five pitches.

It got worse. Cueto's trademark shimmy didn't pass muster with first base umpire and lasik candidate Bill Welke, who ruled Cueto had balked and ordered the run home.

Bruce Bochy was understandably livid. Rules do cover this stuff, and if you follow said rules something either is or isn't a balk. Unless we missed something, the balk rule didn't change in the last five days and neither did Cueto's move, so someone has some 'splainin' to do, Lucy.

And don't get us started on Utley making no attempt to avoid the pitch that put him on in the first place; an act he repeated in the fifth. The knife got twisted a bit more when Adrian Gonzalez singled home Seager for a 2-1 LA lead.

The Giants quickly cut the deficit in half when Matt Duffy went yard for the first time in 214 at bats and the first time in his career off Kershaw. A cutter that didn't became a souvenir as Duffy launched the offering deep into the left field seats.

The anticipated pitchers' would  materialize, it was just an inning late. Neither team had a serious threat until the Giants' half of the fifth, when they wasted a big one.

Kershaw deflected Mac Williamson's one-out grounder to short, where Seager frightened small (and large) children with an errant throw that sent Williamson to second. Brandon Crawford's infield single put runners at the corners, giving the Giants a chance to score with a well-placed out.

Or not. Jarrett Parker went down swinging, leaving it up to Cueto. His soft grounder to second ended the threat.

Hey, remember that Buster Posey guy? He came back from his five-day injury vacay to get the Giants even in the sixth. After a single by Joe Panik, Posey split the gap in left center with a two-out double that knotted the score. 

Kershaw would whiff Brandon Belt to finish the inning, but his 27-toss inning pushed up the pitch count near 90 and showed the assembled (who were finally watching baseball instead of the Warriors score) the Dodgers' lefty was human.

Then again, maybe there's some T.A.H.I.T.I. Project alien DNA thrown in there somewhere. Kershaw got two of his three outs in the seventh via strikeout. His 99th pitch closed the inning, getting his 11th K of the night; and every cursed one of them was swinging.

Duffy flees the camera but can't escape Brandon Belt after going deep. (Getty Images)

Meanwhile Cueto, who saw four of the first five hitters reach, had surrendered just one baseru nner (whining Utley) since that aggravating first frame. He cruised through eight on 113 pitches (3H, 8K, 0BB) before departing for pinch hitter Trevor Brown; who of course stuck out swinging as Kershaw pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. 

Trevor Brown? Did Madison Bumgarner forget his bat? What's next, Santiago Casilla pitching the ninth? Oh, wait.

Three pitches, Justin Turner, Gone. Gas Can strikes again. 

The Giants made some noise in the ninth off Kenley Jansen. Belt pulled a two-out double and Geegor Blanco walked, but Brandon Crawford whiffed on a 3-2 pitch to send fans toward the Muni amid cursing and clenched teeth.

Casilla, your bus is leaving. Be under it.

Kershaw struck out a career-high-tying 13 in eight innings en route to his ninth win. That other 13-K performance? Yep, he got San Francisco then, too. Cueto was delayed in his quest for a 10th win. You know who got the loss.

The Giants actually out-hit LA 6-5, if you can believe that one, getting one hit each from the two through seven spots in the  line-up.

That 18-4 run is now a distant memory. The injury and Casilla-plagued Giants have lost six of 10 and have seen their NL West lead over the Dodgers shrink to three games.

Jeff Samardzija (7-4, 3.33 ERA), shaky in his last two outings, tries to right the ship on Saturday against the Dodgers' Scott Kazmir (5-3, 4.46).

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