So, what do YOU plan to do in October?

In the seasons to come, fans of teams that falter down the stretch will look to history for comparisons; for the epic collapses that put their own misfortunes into perspective. The curious tail of the 2016 San Francisco Giants will come up. If ever there was a team that just looked whipped, it's this one.

A night after the Giants pitching staff got universally blasted, they needed a strong pitching effort to have any chance of upending the surging LA Dodgers. Pitching they got, and it just didn't matter as the Giants yawned sleepwalked Wednesday through a 1-0 loss that dropped them three full games behind the Dodgers in the LA West race. Three games? It might as well be 30. This team's goose is surely cooked.

These fans had a great view of second half Giants baseball. Nice seats! 

You can look for all sorts of explanations, but the bottom line is this: the best team in baseball through 90 games was supposed to get better. Injured mainstays were returning, depth was added to the pitching staff, and the team merely had to protect a six-game divisional lead. Instead it just quit. 

There's no other way to put it. When you drop 25 of 36 and looked bad, hell, totally disinterested while doing so, there's an issue that goes well beyond the playing surface. This is a team going in the wrong direction, and there's no evidence they have the ability or the inclination to pull out of the dive.

How bad has it been? The Dodgers haven't exactly set the world on fire, going 20-15 over their last 35, yet in that span they've bested the Giants by an astounding 11 games. You can't be that bad on purpose. And yet that's exactly where the Giants find themselves.

Let's really rub it in. The Dodgers have done this with Clayton Kershaw, Brett Anderson and now Scott Kazmir on the DL. That's 60 percent of the rotation, and Kershaw hasn't pitched in nearly two months. No matter. The Giants not only looked this gift horse in the mouth, they stared it down and took a trip down its gullet.

On this night Johnny Cueto went to the hill in search of his 15th win. He pitched well enough to get it, except his teammates forgot there was a game. We're certain the accomodations are lovely in Los Angeles and the team likely found both the pool and the bar inviting. Someone please send a runner to tell them the bus from the stadium is back.

Cueto allowed just four hits, but one killed him. Justin Turner's solo shot in the fourth provided the only run of the game as the Giants failed away at pitches from journeyman Rich Hill and his pals like a cow trying to swat gnats with its tail. And of course, you know what that barnyard would be covered with, right? That perfectly describes the play of this team.

Yeah, we've got a lot of livestock references going on here, but how else do you nag about a group that probably needs to be either sent out to pasture or put down? There's no fire, no passion; just a bunch of guys in funny outfits going through the motions and acting as though they've made non-refundable vacation plans with an October 3 departure date.

The Giants had just two opportunities to score, and getting something out of either would have at least spared them the indignity of a ninth shut-out. As it turned out, cashing in could have meant a heck of a lot more. It may have meant the season, not that anyone acts like they care.

We take that back. Cueto pretty much had it going for seven innings and Buster Posey continues to swing the bat well, if unspectacularly. The rest of the squad should be the subject of an Amber Alert and an aggressive milk carton campaign.

The source of their pain on this night hadn't pitched in a month due to blisters on his pitching hand, but Hill instead left the Giants in pain. He scattered five hits over six frames, allowing just one Giant to reach second base. Then a parade of relievers, four in all, combined to surrender just a hit and a two walks the rest of the way. 

It figures. It was the Dodgers debut for Hill, who was acquired in a recent deal with the A's. The Dodger pick up a guy, he looks like the next Syd Finch. The two guys San Francisco brought in? Well, they've thrown like Cyd Charisse. At this point we'd settle for Jennie Finch.

The Giants put two men on in the first when Posey singled and Hunter Pence beat out a topper, but that action came with two out and fizzled when Brandon Crawford looked at three straight breaking balls. San Francisco didn't mount another threat until the eighth when Angel Pagan's one-out walk and Pence's two-out single put runner at the corners, but Crawford flied out to the track in right.

And there's the metaphor. Your 2016 San Francisco Giants: A Warning Track Team. Almost, but not quite. Not quite enough power. Not quite enough pitching, not quite enough anything to really make it work.

Turner, that overstuffed Muppett, provides all the offense LA needed. (AP Photo)

Just so that it stung just a tad bit more, Turner's home run was hardly the majestic shot befitting a one-run game. The fly ball needed every bit of the four-mph wind blowing out, scraping the back of the left field wall on the way down. Of course. A hot dog wrapper dropped at the right moment might have blown the ball back into play, but that how it goes when your luck (and the Giants had a lot of it early on) has run out.

Cueto hurled his gum away in disgust as the ball sailed beyond reach. Nice toss, too; maybe 50 feet. Better location on that one as well. Nice.

The Giants now have lost four straight and eight of 10 as the Dodgers have started to pull away despite going a mediocre 6-4. Mediocre, God how we wish the Giants were that kind of mediocre. If they'd just broken even over the last 36 instead of dropping 25 contests, they'd still hold a four-game lead in the division. But they didn't, so they don't.

While there's still the wild card to consider, we're not holding our breath for a 2014 type of run. San Francisco holds the first wild card spot but Cardinals, Marlins, Pirates and Mets are all within five games, and all are playing at a .500 or better clip. 

The resurgeance has to start on Thursday or the Giants might need to start thinking about early releases from those in-season housing leases, because this one will be over. They'll need help from an unlikely source as Matt "Not, Duffy, the Other Matt" Moore (7-10, 4.18 ERA) takes stab number five at his first Giants win.  Ross Stripling (3-4, 4.04 ERA), he of the lost perfect game from earlier this campaign, tries to deliver the sweep and drive a stake through the Giants' hearts.

Something has to lift the curse, so BYOG (Bring Your Own Garlic).

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