By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–The best record in San Francisco Giants history through 144 games. At least six runs scored in each of the last eight games, all wins. Four more homers on Monday night.

And one more: a playoff berth–considered highly unlikely when the season began–clinched earlier on the calendar than the club has done previously in franchise history.

The Giants are once-in-a-generationally hot, and they’re not showing any signs of letting up.

“We’re definitely happy that we’re going to the playoffs, there’s no doubt about that,” Brandon Belt said. “But we want to win the division. This is the first step, but we didn’t come here just to make it in.”

“You have quite a few World Series champions in that room and people who understand that this is one step in the direction that we want to go, but not the ultimate goal,” manager Gabe Kapler added.

An 9-1 thrashing of the helpless Padres on Monday happened so fast, the final five innings held no intrigue–and almost no additional scoring. The Giants put up five in the first, and three more in the fourth to lead 8-1.

And this was bullpen night, which is usually problematic given the Giants currently have two empty slots in their rotation, but on this occasion was supreme. Dominic Leone started (for the third time, the first was September 5) and he remained perfect. Leone threw a pair of scoreless innings, and has five scoreless in total in his three starts.

Jose Alvarez followed, allowing the Padres’ only run on Fernando Tatis’ RBI double, and the relievers rolled out from there. Six in all saw action with rookie Kervin Castro pitching the eighth and ninth. The Giants are expected to again turn to their relievers on Wednesday as Johnny Cueto and Alex Wood remain on the shelf.

Tommy La Stella opened the scoring with a 414-foot shot to straight away center field. Evan Longoria capped the five-run frame with three-run shot. Those home runs sandwiched Lamonte Wade Jr.’s triple that scored Darin Ruf.

Yu Darvish took the loss, allowing all four home runs, which included bombs by Belt and Mike Yastrzemski, both of which traveled further than La Stella’s in the first. Darvish–at least in Giants’ broadcaster Dave Fleming’s opinion–maybe the poster child for the hastily-adopted rules aimed at eliminating pitchers using sticky substances to grip the baseball, and maximize the ball’s rotation. Darvish has won just twice since the new rules took effect, he was 6-1 in prior to that.

The Giants were in their fine-tuned, power swinging mode with just eight hits to score nine runs. Six of the eight went for extra bases, all previously mentioned with the exception of Brandon Crawford’s double that contributed to the team’s eighth inning rally that capped their scoring.

The Giants won’t see much change in the NL West standings–the Dodgers were winning 4-1 in the seventh at the time this article published–but the pressure is on the defending champions, as their equally hot play hasn’t earned them in any traction in the race for the division title. Only 18 games remain, and the Giants have the friendlier schedule with 12 remaining home games.

One last reminder of how hot the Giants are: if they capture 14 of their last 18 games, that would give them 108 wins on the season. While that would require an insanely torrid pace, one the team can’t be doggedly pursuing with the playoff preparation their biggest priority, it would mean incredible history. Only the 1975 Reds and 1986 Mets have won that many games in the divisional era which dates back to 1969.

On Tuesday, the Giants battle the Padres again with Anthony DeSclafani and Jake Arrieta the listed starters for the 6:45pm start.