We had seen this all before.

A Giants loss, making it a season-high 7 in a row; another loss at home (1-15 over last 16 games, the franchise’s worse stretch since 1901); another loss in a one-run game (two in a row); another loss scoring just one run (fourth time this week), another no-decision for Justin Verlander when he left the mound with a lead (sixth on the season).

The San Francisco Giants are spiraling. And not spiraling in that pretty way those helicopter seeds fall from a maple tree, daintily spinning through the air before landing gently on the placid surface of a lake, sending a quiet ripple shimmering across the water… Yeah, the Giants aren’t like that. They’re spiraling like how a cinder block spirals, like a cinder block spirals when its dropped from a maple tree. “Plummeting” is the apt adverb. Plummeting uncontrollably. Plummeting with no parachute, nothing to break their fall.

It doesn’t matter who they play right now, because it’s clear they aren’t going up against another baseball team — but the laws of physics. Gravity has taken hold.

Even a vintage Verlander performance couldn’t free the team from its pull. 7 scoreless innings, the deepest he’s gone in a game as a Giant. 8 strikeouts, 0 walks, just two hits, 16 Rays retired in a row from the end of the 1st all the way through the 6th. Everything was working for the old man: the sharp fastball at the top of the zone with a heightened zip from the sparing use of his secondary offerings. The curveball especially was somehow both loopy and biting.

But Verlander leading San Francisco’s charge out of their losing streak? That would’ve been a good gag… But no. We are trapped in a series of cruel repetitions and vexing cycles.

After showing some offensive life in Friday’s game (still a loss), the Giants went cold against Adrian Houser, who had thrown 7 scoreless innings against them as a member of the White Sox earlier in the season. He wasn’t quite as dominant as Verlander but was just as effective at keeping runs off the board.

Houser got a quick hook from manager Kevin Cash, throwing just 69 pitches through 5 complete before being relieved. A move that provided more relief for the Giants offense than the Rays’ pitching. Willy Adames singled off lefty Mason Montgomery in the 6th before stealing second and advancing to third on a deeeeeep flyout off the bat of Jung Hoo Lee. The loud contact, a result of a 9-pitch battle, forced Cash to swap Montgomery for Edwin Uceta who promptly gave up a single to Christian Koss, who now has an RBI in his last three games.

That lone run was good enough for Verlander who pitched a clean 7th, providing the elusive shutdown inning that bamboozled San Francisco’s pitching on Friday evening — but it wasn’t enough for the bullpen.

The 8th started out so promising too.

José Buttó’s first two pitches bagged two outs. He was cruising! But the moment we allowed ourselves to feel the sliveriest sliver of hope that the lead might just last…the needle jumped. The game skipped a groove and fell through a scratch in the space-time continuum. Time is a spinning wheel. Events started repeating itself. A poorly gripped breaking ball flew out of Buttó’s hand just as one did with Randy Rodriguez on the mound in the 9th. Another botched slider struck Nick Fortes’s in the elbow pad, surrendering a free consequential 90 feet. Another single from Chandler Simpson shot to the opposite field, another 2-out RBI single off the bat of Yandy Díaz to bring home the hit batter and tie the game.

Swap Buttó for Matt Gage, and the Rays just doubled their lead. Another soft single to the opposite field. Another run batted in for the lead.

Devers and Adames both struck out in response to the sudden deficit in an uneventful 8th. In the bottom of the 9th, Lee singled to put the tying run on base while bringing the winning run to the plate with nobody out, just like they did in the bottom of the 9th on Friday, and just like the bottom of the 9th on Friday, nothing happened, nothing changed, and yesterday is today and so is tomorrow too.