By Morris Phillips

The Giants 0.2 percent chance to make the post-season and get the opportunity to defend their World Series title will get a serious test tonight.

The NL West-leading Dodgers lost at home on Monday night, and their magic number to clinch the division remains at seven.  After running red-hot to end August and into September, the Dodgers have lost three straight at home.

The Giants haven’t done much to put the pressure on their rivals, most recently losing two of three to the Diamondbacks at home.  But with 13 games remaining, they could still take advantage of a very favorable schedule in the season’s final two weeks.

The defending champs’ primary goal: win 12 of their final 13 games, get to 90 wins on the season, and hope it’s enough to force a one-game playoff with the Dodgers that undoubtedly would be etched into the rich history of competition between the two clubs.

Did we say it would take a miracle?  Well, it will.

The Giants best hope is to take advantage of a schedule that has them finishing their road schedule this week, and their travel schedule on Wednesday.  The Giants open a three-game set at Petco Park against the Padres tonight, then fly back to the Bay Area for their final three road games in Oakland against the A’s over the weekend.

The schedule, however, isn’t all roses and home-cooked meals.  After Thursday’s off-day, the Giants finish the season with 10 games in 10 days.

What will undoubtedly require the help of the baseball gods is what the Giants can’t control.  While they need to get ridiculously hot, they also need the Dodgers to go ice cold.  The Giants can only beat the Dodgers four times, but they will need them to lose at least four more times on top of that.  That’s where the NL West’s three other teams come into play.  The Padres, Diamondbacks and Rockies each have three games left with the Dodgers and one of them will have to beat Los Angeles twice, and the other two can’t get swept.

On top of that, after tonight, the Dodgers’ potent duo of Zach Greinke and Clayton Kershaw are scheduled to pitch six of the team’s final 12 games, if they’re needed, included both of their final two games at home against the Padres.  Just forcing the Dodgers to burn their two biggest assets in the season’s final two days would be an accomplishment.  Given all the recent disappointment the Dodgers have experienced in the post-season, the last thing they want is to not have both pitchers primed and ready to pitch the first two games of the NLDS which starts on October 9.

Did we mention that the unspoken necessity in all of this is a four-game Giants’ sweep of the Dodgers starting next Monday at AT&T Park despite Greinke and Kershaw scheduled to pitch two of those four games?

We said it would take a miracle.

The Giants open their series against San Diego tonight with Chris Heston (11-10) facing former Athletic Tyson Ross (10-10) at 7:05pm.

MIRACLE NOTES: If the Giants were able to force a one-game playoff for the NL West division title against the Dodgers on October 5, remember this:  The Giants wouldn’t have Madison Bumgarner available to pitch, but the Dodgers wouldn’t have Greinke or Kershaw either.  Also, the Dodgers would enter that game tons of doubt built up by an epic collapse, surrounded by hordes of media curious as to how they got themselves into such a mess.