The Giants lost to a “good team” today.

In fact they have lost three straight games against said good team to complete the sweep. They gave up a four-run deficit in the last three innings of today’s loss to the Nationals.

The Giants were a good team a couple weeks ago. They beat out the first-place Dodgers in a three-game shutout sweep at AT&T (Where they are 26-16 with a 2.41 ERA) and then split a four-game series with the NL Central first-place Cincinnati Reds.  They were on their way up while the rest were all on their way down.

After a 5-2 home stand against first place teams, I knew for sure this will be a playoff team. I looked ahead to the Giants upcoming road trip and all I saw was an opportunity to get respect from around the league. The first thing I saw was a series against the first-place Washington Nationals. In Washington. On the Fourth of July weekend. With Bryce Harper trying to get a vote into the All-star game.

The nation and all of baseball was keeping an eye on that match-up all week. The Giants came out empty-handed and found themselves back to second place. The good news is the Giants play the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates in Pennsylvania next series.

The Pirates are somehow a good team. They have some good pitching and their offense is somewhat decent enough to put up a 46-36 record – second best in the N.L.

I have no doubt the Giants will respond in this series. They should feel embarrassed of the Washington series. Much like every other “good team” the Giants have played in 2012 thus far, when have the Giants proven themselves worthy of another championship?  Agasint the Dodgers, sure, but agaisnt the Rangers, Angels, Nationals, Marlins or Mairners? Not at all.

The Giants are lacking one thing right now: they have good pieces on the roster which they added this previous off-season (Melky Cabrera, Angel Pagan, etc.) and young players playing well (Bumgarner, Belt, Posey, etc.), but they are lacking power.

I know Giants fans and the Giants organization has been saying that all season of every season since Barry Bonds left, but this time they are only a small step away from being unbeatable. They need a spark and they will roll over “good teams’ in the future.

Th Giants have all the gears lined up, they just need to find the last one to make the machine function. I am confident in the Giants attempting to be buyers this month closer to the trade deadline. Am I confident they will find the perfect fit? Based on previous years, no, but who knows? Maybe Brian Sabean will quite kicking tires when he should have been in the damn gear aisle this whole time.

All I’m saying is there is a right guy out there for the Giants offense to get things going. I’m pretty sure the Gregor Blanco experiment has come down to a light simmer and the Nate Schierholtz experiment has had some bad results. The Giants need a power outfielder. They need a guy who can score runners from second when there are no outs because that’s what makes a “good team.”

This month I will be looking really hard into potential trade targets for the Giants, trying to find the best fit to this Giant puzzle.

I sure hope Sabean will read these…