The San Francisco Giants' late-season collapse deepened as the Los Angeles Dodgers dominated the division rivalry.
Despite taking a series from the St. Louis Cardinals, the San Francisco Giants have lost seven of their last nine games.
This team fell to 64-92 as they were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, a franchise they had no issues in beating earlier in the year.
Remember, the Giants started this season series with a pair of wins against the Dodgers. They won the first series at home from April 21-23, then took two of four at Dodger Stadium from May 11-14.
Here in the second half of the season, it's safe to say things have gone downhill. Even at those points earlier in the year, the Giants left those series with an 11-14 record, and later were 18-26.
Obviously, neither of those are nearly as bad as where they're at with only six games remaining in the regular season. Everyone knows the Giants are already eliminated from playoff contention, but they'd at least like to end the year on a high note.
Giants were outscored 21-7
On average, the Dodgers scored seven runs per game in this series from Sept. 18-20. Things got started off on the wrong foot as LA won 8-2, and then they dominated in game two, 10-4.
Game three's loss wasn't as bad, 3-1, but it still was a tough pill to swallow as the Giants led that game 1-0 through the first six and a half innings.
There's no shortage of problems with this pitching staff, but one also has to take a step back and look at how prolific the Dodgers offense truly is.
San Francisco had two hits in the series finale
They may have only lost by two runs, but the Giants were out-hit 11-2 in the series finale.
Jung Hoo Lee, who exited with a groin injury, had one of those hits. The other belonged to designated hitter Victor Bericoto, who drove in the team's only run off Jack Dreyer in the first inning.
Giants bullpen didn't have Matt Wilkinson's back
One of the biggest things the Giants are trying to do late in the season is see how much talent they have with some of their young stars.
Matt "Tugboat" Wilkinson had a rather rough introduction to the MLB, but he's starting to really come into his own.
The 23-year-old threw five scoreless innings against the back-to-back World Series Champions. He struck out six batters, didn't walk a single one, and allowed only three hits.
Once he was pulled, the first three relievers manager Tony Vitello put into the game all gave up runs, and that's the story of this team's season.
