Giants Month in Review - May 2016

Entering the month of May in a tie with the archrival Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in NL Western division, the San Francisco Giants managed to separate themselves from their division foes by catching fire and winning an MLB-best 21-games in May. With temperatures starting to heat up across the country, so has the Giants pitching staff, led by ace Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija. And though the Giants finished off the month of May strong, they did struggle early on before leap-frogging their way up the power rankings. 

After salvaging the third and final game of a three-game series against the reigning NL Champion New York Mets to begin the month, the Giants took two of three on the road in Cincinnati, including a Game 1 match-up which featured Giants newcomer Johnny Cueto toeing off against his former ball club. Though he wouldn't get the win and would be touched up for a season-high 6 earned runs in the outing, the Giants reigned victorious, 9-6. Next up, San Francisco would return home for a 4-game set against the Colorado Rockies where they would receive a rude awakening. A week after allowing the Mets to pile on a franchise-record 12 runs in a single inning, Giants pitching would be snake bitten for a second time as the Rockies set a club record by scoring 13 runs in a single inning. Colorado would go on to pummel the Giants, 17-7, tying a record for the most runs scored by an opposing team in the 17-year history of AT&T Park. Ultimately splitting the four-game series against the Rockies, the Toronto Blue Jays were next in line to pay the Giants a visit, taking the first two games before dropping the series finale as the Giants won in walk-off fashion thanks to a bases-loaded walk to Buster Posey in the 13th inning. 

The walk-off win would be the start of an 8-game winning-streak for San Francisco as they pulled off back to back road sweeps against the Arizona Diamondbacks (4-games) and San Diego Padres (3-games), as the Giants completed their first undefeated road trip of 7 games or more since 1913. Also, the 4-game sweep of the D-Backs would be the first by the Giants in Arizona since 2010. In the first two games in San Diego, Bumgarner and Cueto registered back to back complete games with each pitcher allowing only one run. It would mark the first time the Giants have had consecutive complete-game wins by starting pitchers versus the same opponent since August of 1995 (Mark Leiter & Terry Mulholland). Following their successful road trip, the Giants would return home to face off against the Chicago Cubs and reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrietta who had not lost an outing in over 20 consecutive starts. And while the Giants were unable to find an answer for Chicago's ace as San Francisco had their 8-game winning streak snapped, they did bounce back by taking the series victory, winning two of three before pulling off another three-game sweep of the Padres. During their 8-game win-streak, the Giants never scored more than 5 runs as the starting rotation carried the load by logging a 1.34 ERA in 60 2/3 innings and limiting opposing hitters to a .189 batting average.

After struggling for much of the season and looking like a ghost of his former self, former ace and workhorse Matt Cain finally began to turn the corner and find his groove after stringing together three straight solid starts as he logged both his first win in nearly a year (6 innings, 1 earned run against the Cubs), ending a dry spell of 8 straight losing decisions, the longest streak by a Giants pitcher in three years, and his first hit in over two years (a 2-run double off of Jon Lester). But just when the Giants began getting steady production and gaining faith in their fifth starter, Cain was forced to hit the 15-day disabled-list after straining his hamstring in the second inning of a road outing against the Rockies which resulted in him being replaced in the rotation by rookie Albert Suarez. The Giants would eventually go on to lose the game before taking the next two in Denver, including a 10-5 victory in the second game of the series in which Buster Posey connected for a pair of 3-run home runs to tie a personal-best 6 RBI. The Giants rallied from a 5-4 deficit in the 8th by scoring six runs on eight hits in the frame, the most hits in a single inning by the Giants since August of 2012 against the Padres. The sizzling offense would continue on into the following day for the Giants as they tallied 8 doubles in the series finale, matching the most two-baggers in a game during the San Francisco era as they went on to win, 8-3.

With the month of May coming to a close, the Giants would make their final trip to Atlanta's Turner Field to take on the Braves who will be playing their home games in a new ballpark located in Cobb County come 2017. After dropping the first of four games by a final of 5-3, the Giants answered with a 4-0 shutout victory in a game started by pitcher Jake Peavy who celebrated his 35th birthday by tossing 7-shutout innings of 1-hit ball before the bullpen did the rest. Peavy and company held the Braves to just one hit for only the fifth time since Turner Field opened in 1997. As for the offense, Peavy also collected a hit and scored on an RBI triple by outfielder Denard Span who tallied three hits in the win and is beginning to heat up, having collected hits in 10 of his last 23 at-bats. The Giants finished the month of May winning 16 of their last 19 games while posting an overall record of 21-8 and are now 12 games over the .500 mark, having already surpassed their season-high of 11 games over .500 a season ago. Bruce Bochy's ball club currently stands 4.5 games above the Dodgers for first place at 33-21 on the year, good enough for the second best record in the National League behind only the Chicago Cubs (35-15) and third overall after the Boston Red Sox (32-20).

Highlighting San Francisco's dominance in May was the efforts by the Giants pitching staff led by Bumgarner who went 4-0 with an ERA of 1.05. But it would be Cueto who amassed an ERA of 2.08 in May and was awarded NL Player of the Week honors for the second time of his career and his first since August of 2014 after allowing only 1 earned run and 8 hits in his 15 innings of work against the Padres and Rockies. With only two complete games in all of last season, Cueto has already surpassed that total with three this year. His dominance against division foes has been exceptionally well as his 2.35 career ERA against Colorado is the lowest among active pitchers with at least 10 starts against the Rockies. And then there's the three straight complete games he's tossed against the Padres this season, a feat that hasn't been done in a single-season since Felix Hernandez did it against New York Yankees in 2009. Samardzija also finished with a strong month of May despite a hiccup in his last outing in Atlanta, compiling an ERA of 2.08 in six May outings. Cain and Peavy didn't share the same kind of dominance as their peers, but did pitch to the tone of a much better May than April as they both saw their ERA's nearly cut in half. 

With the Giants kicking off the month of June by finishing the second half of their 10-game road trip with two more games in Atlanta before a 3-game set in St. Louis, the team will enjoy a day off before returning home to host the Boston Red Sox for a pair of games before welcoming the Dodgers and Brewers for three games each. The Rays, Pirates, Phillies and Athletics will round out the remaining list of opponents for Giants as they look to continue their winning ways on into June. GO GIANTS!


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