By Jeremy Harness

The Giants are looking more like a World Series team now.

The Giants finished off an outstanding road trip to the southwestern part of the United States in grand fashion Wednesday afternoon with a dominant 7-1 win over the San Diego Padres at a half-empty Petco Park.

By virtue of their victory Wednesday, the Giants took two of the three-game series with the Padres, who entered this series having won five consecutive games. At the same time, they made the National League West a two-team race by distancing themselves from the Padres as well as the Arizona Diamondbacks, who the Giants swept prior to rolling into San Diego.

Matt Cain gave the Giants a solid outing, as he threw six solid innings and gave up only a run – courtesy of a solo homer in the second inning by Jedd Gyorko that gave San Diego a 1-0 lead – on five hits, walking only one and striking out six.

It was arguably the best outing that he has had since returning from elbow surgery, and that was not lost on manager Bruce Bochy.

“He was hitting the spots much better than he did in (his) last outing, where before, he had trouble getting the ball where he wanted,” Bochy said. “He gave us some length, got his pitch count up, which should help him.

“Just a great job by Matty.”

The performance came with a negative, however. Even though he kept the Giants in the game, he did not end up getting the win. He left the game with the game tied 1-1, but the Giants got loose for a four-run seventh inning, which was highlighted by a double to right that skipped past right fielder Matt Kemp and scored two runs.

They added three more runs in the eighth, and the Giants ended the 5-1 road trip and have inched closer to the top of the division. The Giants are now 2 ½ games behind the front-running Los Angeles Dodgers and have a chance to draw a little closer, as they head home Friday to face the A’s, who are sitting in last place in the American league West at press time.