August was a good and evil month. The first half was all good: despite going just 6-6 to open it up, they split against the Diamondbacks, scored 13 runs in a game, and played the Astros tough. Sure, they blew both late-inning leads against the Astros, but they hung tough with a team they had no business competing against (really, it’s unfair to the Astros to make them play sub-replacement level teams like the Giants).
And then they went into Los Angeles and took the first two games in a three-game series against their arch rival and division-leading Dodgers (both times ripping out the Dodgers’ hearts through their bullpen, and one time picking a fight with Yasiel Puig to get him ejected, fined and suspended).