San Francisco Giants Month in Review - May

Best in the Bigs - With baseball season in full swing as two calendar months are officially in the books, here's a look at the San Francisco Giants and the season they've had thus far through the month of May. Currently standing as the best team in all of baseball with a league best record of 37 wins and 20 losses, the Giants sit atop the NL Western Division with a 7 game advantage over the second-place L.A. Dodgers which is also the largest lead of any division. Winners of 8 out of their last 10 games, the Giants are heating up just like the weather and have been finding ways to win games with both their pitching and perhaps more surprisingly their hitting.

Through the first 50 games this season, the Giants stood at 32-18, the best start through the first 50 games for the franchise since the team opened their gates to AT&T Park in 2000, known then as Pac Bell. But as good as the Giants have been at home thus far, going 19-9, they've been equally as good on the road at 18-11 after taking 3 of 4 versus the Red Birds in St. Louis. Overall, the month of May saw San Francisco finish 10 games over .500 at a 19-9 clip despite having only two off days in the entire month, winning or at least splitting every series with the lone exception of a 3-game set in Pittsburgh where the Giants won the first game of the series before dropping the next two. Not even having Hunter Pence's scooter stolen has been able to slow down the team.

Part of the Giants early season success had a lot to do with the bat of first baseman Brandon Belt who stood among the league leaders in home runs after the first several weeks of the season before suffering a broken thumb vs the Dodgers after being hit by a pitch. The injury to Belt prompted Giants manager Bruce Bochy to call up outfielder Tyler Colvin who in limited action this season has come through big on a number of occasions. The label of San Francisco's most productive hitter, however, belongs to Michael Morse who up to this point has been everything the Giants hoped he'd be and more when they signed him during the offseason to provide some pop, hitting from the cleanup spot and leading the team in both home runs (11) and RBI's (38). Recently, Morse and co. has gotten some help on offense with what appears to be the resurgence of Pablo Sandoval who entered the month hitting near the Mendoza line but has been on a tear the last few weeks, riding a 12-game hit-streak and plating 4 Home Runs and 12 RBI's while hitting .368 in his last 10 games. Even with their backbone on offense in Buster Posey missing several days due to tightness in his lower back, the Giants have shown no signs of slowing down.

With dominant starting pitching and a shutdown bullpen being the formula for each of the Giants' World Series runs in 2010 and 2012, 2014 has seen much of the same. But hamstring injuries to both Matt Cain and Santiago Casilla, both of whom have become staples for the orange and black, has landed both pitchers on the disabled-list. Luckily for the G-Men, the ball club is rich in pitching and have been able to survive without them. Possibly the biggest story of the season for the Giants has been that of pitcher Tim Hudson who general manager Brian Sabean signed during the offseason for 2-years, $23 Million which at the time raised a few eyebrows given Hudson's age of 38 years old and a fractured ankle which he suffered in 2013. 11 starts into his 2014 campaign and the acquisition of Hudson now looks like a bargain as nine of those outings have seen him pitch at least 7 innings. Boasting an ERA of 1.75 and a record of 6 wins and 2 losses, Hudson has so far pitched his way into being an early Cy Young candidate. 

Hudson isn't the only Giants hurler who's been on a role as of late, teammate Madison Bumgarner took home NL Pitcher of the Month honors for the month of May after posting an undefeated record of 5-0 in six starts while collecting 48 strikeouts and walking just five. Upon being named the first Giants pitcher to be awarded Pitcher of the Month honors since teammate Tim Lincecum took home the honors in June of '09, Bumgarner saw his ERA dip from 3.74 to 2.85.

The month of June will see the Giants play 8 series against seven different teams, all of which currently stand at or below a .500 winning percentage. One of those series will be a two-game set on the road to face the Chicago White Sox where the Giants will look to improve on their perfect record of 6-0 this year during Interleague play and make it 8 straight wins versus American League teams dating back to last year which would set a franchise record.


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