SAN FRANCISCO — Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre delivers his perspective with a certain poignancy.

Told that the Giants were beginning a stretch of nine games against the Dodgers and Colorado Rockies, the two teams they trail in the NL West and wild card standings, Torre looked up and smiled.
“They are where they want to be,” he said. “If you win these games, you deserve it. And if you don’t, you don’t deserve to be there. It’s not like you’re asking anybody else to do the job.”
The Giants played as if they deserve tee times in October. They were flat, and their lineup was predictably lifeless, falling prey to the Dodgers’ Hiroki Kuroda in a 10-3 loss Friday night at AT&T Park.
Combined with Colorado’s come-from-behind win in the ninth in San Diego, the Giants now are 5› games back in NL wild-card race as well as 7› behind the NL West leaders.
Matt Cain remained winless in 13 career starts against the Dodgers, giving up a two-run double to James Loney in the first inning and a two-run home run to Casey Blake in the sixth.
The Dodgers rubbed in salt against Merkin Valdez, Bob Howry and Joe Martinez. But the early runs off Cain were enough to overwhelm the Giants, whose offense could drown in an inflatable kiddie pool.
The Giants had the look of resignation — complete with slumped shoulders and blank stares. Through seven innings, they had two hits.
How could they have come out flat?
Giants manager Bruce Bochy said before the game that he didn’t have any motivational speeches planned.
“I don’t think there’s a lot you can say,” he said. “They understand the situation.”
After seven innings, Bochy had seen enough. He brought in seven fresh players, including catcher Buster Posey, who made his long-awaited major league debut.
Posey, the Giants’ most heralded hitting prospect in almost 20 years, had watched eight games since his surprise promotion on Sept. 2. Posey received his first big league at-bat in the eighth and struck out when he failed to check his swing on Kuroda’s 2-2 slider.
Bochy also brought in John Bowker, Kevin Frandsen, Ryan Rohlinger and Rich Aurilia — all players who’ve barely seen the field in September while Bochy’s regulars continued to struggle.
But after seven innings, there was little to lose. The starters had managed two hits off Kuroda, and it’s not as if the Giants had any hope of an epic comeback.
The Giants have come back from a three-run deficit just three times all year. They haven’t erased a deficit of five runs or more since 2008.
And while the Rockies continued to romp, the Giants haven’t shown a any indication they can get on the kind of roll necessary to pump life back into their season.
The Giants haven’t won five consecutive games all year. Even last season’s 72-90 team managed a five-game streak. Two, in fact.
Cain drew cheers in the first inning when he struck out Manny Ramirez, but he left a slider over the plate that Loney pounded to the wall in right field. Cain allowed just one hit over the next four innings, but the Dodgers worked two walks and several more deep counts.
Loney’s two-out single in the sixth extended the inning for Blake, whose shot landed deep in the left-field bleachers.
The Giants couldn’t wear down Kuroda in a similar fashion. Despite making just his second start since getting hit on the head by a line drive Aug. 15, Kuroda worked quickly and needed just 86 pitches to cruise through eight innings.
In other words, same old, same old.
“Most people in here know what’s at stake,” Aurilia said before the game. “You’d like to think everybody will take it seriously with the intent to win. These nine games are what’s going to make or break our season.
“I don’t think it’s time for dramatic speeches. It’s time to play better baseball.”