There is no doubt in every Giants fan’s mind that Monday night’s 14-2 loss to the Washington Nationals was embarrassing. The Giants gave up 21 hits in this game (the most ever by a visiting team in the entire history of AT&T Park) while starting pitcher Ryan Vogelsong only lasted 2 2/3 innings giving up eight runs. Nationals starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez recorded his 15th win of the season, a franchise high.

The loss is their third in the last five games and once again leaves them tied with the ever-persistent Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League West lead. Los Angeles beat Pittsburgh 5-4 on Monday and they show no sign of going away.

“There’s not a whole lot to say,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “What could go wrong went wrong and they made some pretty good contact. They placed the ball well and we couldn’t stop it.”

The Giants need to do better than this…a lot better. This is unacceptable. This team needs to get this into their heads right now: This isn’t some team like the Colorado Rockies that you can smack around. These are the Washington Nationals, the team with the best record in all of baseball. The Nationals have the Giants’ freakin’ number, they have outscored the Giants 38-14 in the four times both teams have met this season.

That’s right. Thirty-eight to 14.

Washington is loaded with great hitting and pretty good pitching. You absolutely cannot let a team like this beat you by 12 runs at home in August when the pennant race is heating up.  The Giants can be that team at times and probably need to be that team a little bit more if they’re looking for their second World Series in three years. This is a time when we figure out who is contending and who is pretending. If the Giants keep this up, they may be doing the latter.