By Morris Phillips

Looking for a statistical category that shows the NL West-leading Giants on top of the heap?

Well, after 40 ballgames, and nearly 25 percent of the season completed, there was just one heading into Monday’s off day—innings played.

And what conclusion can be drawn from that statistic? That after playing 17 games in 17 days—and winning the last five–this group’s enjoying a much-needed day of rest.

As for the remaining 122 games in the 2016 regular season, the Giants might want to give this directive a shot: work smarter and make things easier.

In beating the Diamondbacks in Phoenix four straight over the weekend, the Giants did something they hadn’t done in more than a century. They swept a four game series on the road while scoring just 14 runs, the fewest they’ve scored in such a road sweep since 1910.   This is a team leading a torturous existence, and that constant tension caused by repeated close games seemed to spilled over on Thursday when closer Santiago Casilla voiced his displeasure with how manager Bruce Bochy removed him from a save situation with the bases loaded, two outs, and the Giants clinging to a 4-2 lead.

“He didn’t want to come out,” Bochy said of Casilla storming off the mound angrily, prompting Bochy to call Casilla back in attempt to get the reliever to change his attitude. “You want these guys not to want to come out, but he got a little too emotional.”

“The reason I got upset was because he took me out of the game where I thought he had confidence in me,” Casilla said through an interpreter.

Casilla went on to say that he deserved an explanation for the rare move of removing a closer just one out from the potential conclusion of the game. Instead, Casilla said, Bochy took the ball and said nothing.

The incident was hashed over in private the next day, and Casilla was summoned to get the final two outs in the Giants 3-1 win on Friday. Casilla apologized publicly, and Bochy stated the incident was brushed over, but the manager took heat for his actions from the media, just as did his closer for his hot-headed departure.

ESPN’s Dan LeBatard reacted emotionally on his radio show, saying rather harshly that Bochy treated his player like a dog, not an adult. LeBatard especially was displeased that Bochy called Casilla back to the mound in an attempt to get the closer to immediately change his attitude, saying that Bochy should have admonished Casilla in private after the game, not on the field in front of the cameras and the assembled crowd.

Casilla’s thoughts were similar to LeBatard’s as he also said after that game, “Don’t just take the ball and say nothing. It is not a kid. It is a man on the mound.”

Did the incident speak of a bigger issue within the team’s clubhouse, perhaps a ball club divided? Probably not, given the team’s past harmony and all of the familiar, long time faces on the coaching staff and the roster that have plenty of time to adjust to each other’s personalities and idiosyncrasies.

But the incident surely points to this: close ballgames take a toll on a team, especially at the rate the Giants play them. Twenty-one of the team’s 40 games thus far have been decided by one or two runs, and five games have gone into extra innings. All five of the team’s wins on their current streak fit into one or both of those categories.

Call it Torture 2016.

On Tuesday, Madison Bumgarner takes the ball in the opener of a three-game series in San Diego. He’ll be opposed by the Padres’ Colin Rea, a pitcher who has shown marked improvement since he was lifted in the fourth inning of his first start of the season on April 8. In that one, Rea allowed six hits, four walks and five runs in a game the Padres rebounded to win 13-6 over the Rockies. Since then, Rea has thrown at least five innings in all six starts, including an eight-inning effort against the Mets in which he picked up the win, allowing one run, three hits.