The NL West was incredibly tight last year, and this season already seems similar. Although at the moment there is a distinct frontrunner early in the season while the rest of the teams are bunching up. The San Francisco Giants have ridden their now 4 game losing streak into third place in the division, and trail the leading Colorado Rockies by, wouldn't you know, 4 games.
San Francisco's 3 game beat down they received by the hands of the Atlanta Braves has put them one game under .500 at 10-11, while the Rockies took down the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley last night 5-3 to move to 15-7. The Rox lead is due greatly to their 9-3 record on the road, although some of their opponents have been less then spectacular in all fairness. The Los Angeles Dodgers lost to the Florida Marlins 5-4 last night as well, although the sit in second place at 12-12, half a game ahead of the G-Men. Andre Ethier extended his hitting streak to 22 games, never a good sign for the rest of the division. The Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres round out the bottom of the division at 9-12 and 9-14 respectively, although they both won their games last night.
In the Wild Card the Giants have also fallen 4 games back, sitting behind the leading Marlins, who are 3 games celar of their closest competitor the Reds, followed by the Brewers and Dodgers.
The Giants are going to have to do some serious work on their 10 game East Coast road trip to get back to the top of the division, and hope for some extra help with some losses from their NL West foes.