By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO — The news regarding Steven Duggar’s shoulder injury didn’t help the Giants’ offense on Wednesday, and Zack Godley’s curveballs made things even more unbearable.

And, of course, the first-place Diamondbacks were in no mood to be swept in San Francisco.

The result was a much-needed win for Arizona, ahead of their big weekend with the Dodgers, and a damaging loss 3-1 for the Giants, who needed to find a way to sweep to maintain a presence in the NL West race. The D-Backs’ win puts them a half-game ahead of Colorado, a full game ahead of the Dodgers with the Giants under .500 and seven games back.

“You close out a series the way we did after losing the first two,” Arizona manager Torrie Lovullo said. “You get on a flight, you turn the page and you start to get that good feeling about where we’re going and what we have to do. L.A. is going to present a big challenge.”

All of the excitement derived from the win, easily translated to the upcoming series against the Dodgers for Arizona. For the Giants, the numbing news regarding Duggar was far less negotiable, and took its toll on Bruce Bochy’s lineup first off as the rookie centerfielder had taken residence at the top of the order in recent days and showed that he belonged. In his absence, Andrew McCutchen batted leadoff with Panik second, and that combo–with two knocks–provided almost all of the team’s output. The pair got no help, as McCutchen delivered the team’s only run scoring hit off reliever Archie Bradley after Godley departed.

With a pair of runners aboard, Panik then struck out to end the eighth, and the three final Giants hitters would strike out in the ninth.

Dereck Rodriguez was off his game Wednesday, allowing five hits, four walks and three runs. Steven Souza took a rare turn as leadoff man in Lovullo’s lineup and produced, with a double, home run and two runs batted in.

“I did everything that I could on my part, but if somebody goes down, it’s always that,” Rodriguez said referencing Duggar’s likely season-ending injury. “He’ll be stronger when he gets back.”

The Giants have Thursday off, then spend the weekend hosting the Mets with former Giant Zack Wheeler scheduled to face Andrew Suarez on Friday night at 7:15 pm PDT.