Giants charter, you are cleared for take-off

Here’s betting the Giants couldn’t get to the airport fast enough. Sunday’s 5-3 loss at San Diego put the capper on a lousy return from the All-Star Break as a team that hadn’t lost a division series in three months found itself by a team it had previously taken nine times without a loss.

There are multiple explanations to be thrown out there but the Readers’ Digest version is pretty simple: everything the Giants did to make them the toast of baseball through 90 games disappeared in San Diego. If you cross the border, we’re guessing you’ll find their mojo at a corner table in Hussong’s, two thirds of the way through its second bottle of Mezcal.

If you were searching for a Giants' highlight, this was it. Enjoy. (AP Photo)

Actually one thing did remain constant. The bullpen still stinks. You knew that already so …

After dropping the first two games of the series, a disappointing setback behind Madison Bumgarner on Friday and the latest Santiago Casilla implosion on Saturday, the Giants had to figure the odds were pretty good Johnny Cueto could snap the streak. He’d already seen San Diego three times this year, throwing three complete games and allowing just one earned run. That’s not one per game, just one.

So, of course, Cueto got lit.  He allowed two home runs, just as he had in Tuesday’s All-Star tilt at the same locale, and the result was the same. His team lost. It’s a staggering thought amidst a number of staggering thoughts: a pitcher who’d allowed six homers all season allowed four of them in six days.  Or for further ammunition for your meltdown, that was four long balls in a span of five innings.

We gotta stop looking at these numbers or we’re gonna end up at Hussong’s ourselves. Besides, we have to hang in there for the really bad news.

The Giants were being no-hit into the seventh by Edwin Jackson. You don’t remember Jackson from the first three Giants-Padres series? Perhaps that’s because he was in Florida, and least until he wasn’t in Florida because the Marlins cut in him in early June. This was his first start with the Padres, having just been recalled from Pigsknuckle or wherever the Padres play AAA ball due to the trade of Drew Pomeranz to Boston. We’d have rather seen Pomeranz.

Jackson held San Francisco hitless, then opened the door wide enough for the Giants first hit to make a game of it until the bullpen coughed up any momentum while the Giants bats continued their slumber.

Cueto (13-2) lost for the first time since April 21, allowing solo homers in the fourth to Matt Kemp and Christian Betancourt, with Betancourt’s finding the second deck in left. At that point the damage wasn’t bad but the Giants weren’t doing anything to help themselves offensively. A leadoff walk in the first and an error and walk to open the second gave the Giants opportunity, but they let Jackson off the hook.

Despite the lingering effects of a virus, Cueto pitched into the sixth but allowed a leadoff walk to Alex Dickerson and a single to Bethancourt before giving way to George Kontos. Handing the ball to the Giants pen is the kind of stuff that gives us night sweats, and Kontos showed why. Ryan Schimpf stroked an RBI single and Jackson (yes, the pitcher) followed two batters later with another RBI hit. The book shows Cueto charged with four runs (thanks, George) on six hits in five-plus innings. He struck out four and walked three.

Despite an afternoon of ineptitude, the Giants still had a shot.  Jackson mishandled Gregor Blanco's one-out grounder in the seventh for an error and then walked Ramiro Pena. Rally for free, right? Conor Gillaspie was sent to pinch hit for Kontos, and he lined the first San Francisco hit of the game deep into the right field seats to suddenly make it a 4-3 game. Yay, momentum changer!

In line to be the next nemesis? That's getting to be a long line. (AP Photo)

After that, crickets. Yangervis Solarte homered in the eighth off Hunter Strickland, because, well because Solarte eats high fastballs for breakfast and that’s all Strickland seems able to throw. The next time he throws something with movement, look for copious amounts of Gaylord Perry’s secret sauce somewhere on his person. You look. We don’t have gloves.

Pena’s single to open the ninth was the only other Giants hit. For comparison, Jackson himself clubbed two singles and drove in a run. He also reached on a fielding error by Brandon Crawford.

Jackson walked five, struck out four and threw 90 pitches. Thanks to the Gillaspie homer, San Diego remains the only franchise without a no-hitter, having played 7,582 games since their arrival 1969 without putting up a full-game goose egg.

Let’s look for the silver lining. The Dodgers lost, spotting Arizona a 6-0 lead only to see a furious rally come up short. That kept the gap between the Giants (now 57-36) and the Blue Meanies from Hollywood at 5 ½ games.  LA has split its last 10 but the Giants haven’t taken advantage, going just 6-4 over that span while being victimized by San Diego’s first sweep of 2016.

The Giants are off on Monday, like they handn't been since last week anyway. A quick two-gamer in Boston starts Tuesday with the Orange and Black looking for Jake Peavy (5-7, 5.09 ERA) to stop the bleeding in his return to Boston; he won a World Series ring there in 2013. The BoSox are set to throw Rick Porcello (11-2, 3.66 ERA), who is 8-0 at home.

It will be the Giants first trip to Fenway since 2007. The Giants got swept in that series. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat.

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