Hoping the Dodgers crush the Giants’ playoff drive

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Torn? Not even just a tad? Are you fully on board with:

Crush the Giants! Knock every breath of hope out of their pukey, Halloween-colored sails! Eliminate them from the National League Western Division title race! Leave their wild-card dreams too hazy to recognize!

Do it for the rivalry, for 1982, for Tommy Lasorda bluster, for a season that has mostly been a grand disappointment. Do it for the great fun of it.

The Giants come to town Tuesday night for the final three home games of the season for the Dodgers. San Francisco is suddenly the hottest team in baseball. Haven’t lost since salvaging the final game of that three-game series against the Dodgers on Sept. 11. The Giants have won eight consecutive games to leave them with hope in the N.L. West and the wild-card race.

And here they are, almost served on a platter, all ripe for being taken down. Thank you, baseball gods.

Earlier this season, I lamented that in the wake of the opening-day incident that much of the air had temporarily gone out of the rivalry. That view left many die-hard Dodger fans aghast, as if nothing in the baseball universe could ever diminish the loathing inherit in the Dodgers-Giants rivalry.

For me, temporary lasted until the end of September. In absolutely no way do I mean to diminish what happened to Bryan Stow, but never did I suggest that the rivalry would not ultimately survive and move forward.

Now the temptation to play spoiler is just too sweet. The Giants are four games from being eliminated in the NL West. Any combination of victories by the Diamondbacks or losses by the Giants totalling four and the defending champions can kiss the division title behind. Don’t say that wouldn’t be fun. Alas, even with a sweep the Dodgers can’t completely end the Giants’ playoff hopes. Their surge has them within 3½ games of the Braves for the wild card, leaving the magic number to eliminate the Giants completely from the postseason at six.

The Braves are off Thursday, so the perfect death-star scenario isn’t available, though the Dodgers can leave the Giants’ post-season hopes clinging by one thin, cracked fingernail.

Their dreams destroyed by a bankrupt team. Sounds like a sweet finish to me.

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-- Steve Dilbeck

Left photo: Clayton Kershaw. Credit: Joe Murphy / Getty Images

Right photo: Tim Lincecum. Credit: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images