San Francisco Giants: Rotation Spearheading Win Streak

Seven in a row. This is a nice winning the streak the San Francisco Giants are on. So nice, in fact, it could give the team and its fan base strong reason to believe that the Giants are the team to beat in the National League West.

It’s way too early to make such a declaration, considering that the Los Angeles Dodgers sit two games back in the standings, while the Colorado Rockies are just a ½-game behind the Dodgers. But sitting in first place, six games above .500 with a fourth of the season complete, is a good place to be. It’s also encouraging that the last six wins appearing to be decidedly better than two of their division rivals: the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres.

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The Giants only scored two runs Wednesday against the Padres—on a two-run home run by Hunter Pence, but it was enough to support Johnny Cueto’s spectacular complete game, in which he allowed one run on four hits and two walks. If Cueto’s performance sounds eerily familiar, that is because the night before Madison Bumgarner allowing one run while tossing a complete game.

In all, the Giants have only given up 13 runs during the winning streak—less than two runs per game. What’s more, only once has a Giants starting pitcher allowed more than one earned run during the streak, when Cueto gave up two runs to Arizona in his last start.

The offense hasn’t exactly been awful during the streak, but considering that it has been providing less than four runs per game, the pitching staff definitely deserves most of the credit for the wins. The pitching can’t stay this hot for too much longer, so the offense needs to start clicking a little more.

The Giants will look to extend their winning streak on Thursday, when they wrap up their series in San Diego. Jeff Samardzija will take the mound against Padres workhorse James Shields.

Next: Bumgarner's Temper Flares Again

Then they head back to San Francisco for a huge series against the Chicago Cubs, who own the best record in the Majors and are stirring hope of ending the franchise’s 108-year World Series championship drought.