By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – When the Giants were bludgeoned by Washington exactly a month ago, not very many people treated it as a very big deal at the time.

That kicked off a major slump that lasted the entire month of June, however, and their 9 ½-game lead in the National League West disintegrated into a one-game deficit going into Wednesday night’s game.

The Giants desperately need any wins they can get at this point to get things back on track, and they got one Wednesday night against the best team in the major leagues in the form of the Oakland Athletics, 5-2, at AT&T Park before a crowd of 41,427 that seemed to be split down the middle.

This is just one win, but as crazy as this season has been already for them, this could prove to be the catapult that the Giants have been seeking for a month. It was a particularly-rewarding win because not only did it come at the expense of their cross-bay rivals, but that the A’s had held them to a single run in the first two games of this four-game series.

Starter Matt Cain got the Giants on the right path and kept them there while also getting the run support that has obviously been lacking for the better part of a week.

Cain went six solid innings and gave up only a pair of runs on five hits and held the lead throughout his outing. The win was his first since May 15, although he had pitched solidly in his previous two starts, giving up only two runs in 13 1/3 innings and being stuck with an 0-1 mark nonetheless.

The Giants took their first lead of the series in the second inning, as Joe Panik lined a single into left field following a one out-walk by Gregor Blanco. Blanco was getting ready to pull into third to put runners on the corners, but when A’s left fielder Yoenis Cespedes misplayed the ball and let it skip past him, Blanco turned the corner and made it home, giving the Giants a 1-0 lead.

The third inning was a clear indication that the bounces were going the Giants’ way this time. Center fielder Coco Crisp, who is considered one of the biggest All-Star snubs for the A’s this year, nearly came up with a spectacular diving catch of a shallow fly ball by Pablo Sandoval but had the ball pop out of his glove as he hit the ground.

The next batter, Buster Posey, skipped a single just past the outstretched glove of shortstop Jed Lowrie and allowed Brandon Belt to score.

In the fourth inning, Hunter Pence, who was named to his third career All-Star team on Sunday, launched one into the new vegetable garden beyond the center-field wall to boost the Giants’ lead to 3-1

After Oakland had cut the lead to one in the top of the sixth, the Giants again widened their advantage in the bottom half. Joe Panik and Brandon Crawford led off the inning with back-to-back singles against reliever Eric O’Flaherty.

With one out, Pence shot one up the middle just off the glove of second baseman Alberto Callaspo, which allowed Panik to motor home.

Two batters later, a wild pitch allowed Sandoval to come home and put the Giants ahead, 5-2.

From that point, the Giants bullpen, which was solid during the team’s hot start to the season, returned to form. Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and new closer Santiago Casilla combined to not surrender a single baserunner to go along with three strikeouts.