SF Giants can't keep letting inferior teams beat them, or playoff hopes will die

The SF Giants continue to close in on the New York Mets for the final Wild Card spot in the National League. At 74-71, they are now just two games behind New York with 17 games remaining.

With that being said, the Giants need to keep their foot on the gas. It will probably take at least a 10-7 to finish to get into the postseason, and San Francisco should really hope to win 11 or 12 of their last 17 games.

SF Giants cannot afford to lose to inferior teams the rest of the season

Unfortunately, San Francisco still has seven games remaining against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which means the whole schedule is not a piece of cake. The Giants have to navigate two series against the best team in their division, which likely adds three or more losses to their expected finish.

That makes the other 10 games crucial for San Francisco to take advantage of. The Giants have four games remaining against the Diamondbacks, three against the Cardinals and three against the Rockies.

Ideally, San Francisco should go 10-0 in those ten games. Realistically, they need to at least go 8-2.

San Francisco suffered a major setback to their playoff push over the weekend when they dropped two straight games against the Cardinals. St. Louis (72-74) is only a few games behind the Giants, but at 4.5 games back, their path to the postseason is far less realistic. The Cardinals have less to play for, and have no business winning any more games against the Giants.

What makes those losses even more heart-wrenching is that San Francisco dropped both games by a single run. They lost 3-2 on Saturday night, and 4-3 on Sunday in games that they could have won had things gone slightly different.

That's brutal, and it is close games like that which will decide the Giants fate this season. Had the team won both of those one-score games over St. Louis, they would be tied with the Mets for a playoff spot right now. Instead, they remain chasing New York with three weeks to go.

They really cannot afford to lose any more close games going forward so one hopes the breaks go their way the rest of this season as they try to snag a playoff spot.

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