Following a dominant month of May which saw the San Francisco Giants jump out to a blazing start, manager Bruce Bochy saw his team continue their winning ways through the first week of June. After taking two of three on the road in Cincinnati where the Giants have struggled in recent years and sweeping a three-game series at home vs the Mets, San Francisco stood at 41-20 with the best record in all of baseball. It would also be the best 60-game start to a season for the Giants since 1973. And on June 8, the Giants would witness their lead in the NL Western Division hike up to 9 1/2 games over the second place Los Angeles Dodgers. But any hopes of running away with the division, would come crashing down by months end.
After going 6-1 to begin the month of June, it was almost as if someone flipped a switch as the Giants began struggling both offensively and with their pitching which up to that point had been clicking on all cylinders. Right-hander Tim Hudson who through the first two and a half months as a Giant, looked anything but human on the mound. But a trio of bad outings in June for Huddy, who still boasts an ERA of 2.59, and three blown saves in a two week span for reliever Sergio Romo who would be stripped of his closing duties, would highlight some of San Francisco's pitching woes. The Giants would also experience a power outage on offense as the long ball which played a key role in the team's early success, went missing. Also gone missing would be the Giants' lead-off hitter and spark plug in Angel Pagan who's been sidelined since June 14, while nursing a back injury.
Overall, the Giants would finish the month of June going 10-16, losing 5 of their last 6 series' in the month. Bochy and company would witness their reign of 2+ months in first place come to an end as San Francisco seized the top spot in the NL West on the last day of the month. With the Giants having a day off, the Dodgers took advantage by blanking the Cleveland Indians to take a 1/2 game lead in the division. That lead wouldn't last long, however, as the Giants reclaimed first place the very next day with a win copped with a Dodgers loss. Heading into July, the Giants had lost 15 of 19 games entering the month, but despite their struggles, they would still hang on to one of the best records in the league at 46-36. It wouldn't be all doom and gloom for the orange and black in the month of June, however, as the month also witnessed Tim Lincecum hurl his second career no-hitter. His historic outing would also be the first of back-to-back shutout outings for the 2-time Cy Young Award winner who would also be awarded Player of the Week honors for the performance.
For the Giants, the month of July will feature the halfway point as the All-Star break commences from July 14-17 with the MLB All-Star Game taking place on Tuesday July 15. As for San Francisco's opponents, unlike the month of June where all eight series' were against teams at or below the .500 mark, July will be a much harder task as five of their nine series' will be against teams with winning records. One of those teams the Giants will be meeting with is their Bay Area rival -- Oakland Athletics who currently own the best record in the league.
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If you love the San Francisco Giants as much as I do, you're probably still celebrating the fact that for the second time in three years they're World Series champions. And while the fans and players are still busy soaking it all in, the Giants front-office has been equally as busy this off-season, making moves in preparation of doing it all over again next year. With key contributions during the team's improbable playoff run coming from Jeremy Affeldt in the bullpen and both Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro at the plate, general manager Brian Sabean made it his off-season priority to bring back all three players. And on the opening day of Major League Baseball's Winter Meetings, Sabean who also had his contract extended on Tuesday, managed to have all three players crossed off of the Giants wishlist.
Though reliever Jeremy Affeldt who's become a mainstay in the Giants bullpen since 2009 signed his new three-year, $18 Million deal several weeks ago in mid-November, the Giants filled not one, but two vacancies in their batting order on Tuesday by signing Pagan to a four-year, $40 Million contract and Scutaro to a three-year, $20 Million pact after the two were said to have spoke to other teams. While the Philadelphia Phillies reportedly offered Pagan a four-year deal, the St. Louis Cardinals who Marco Scutaro took home NLCS MVP honors against with a .500 batting average, offered the 37 year old second baseman a multi-year deal. But at the end of the day, it was San Francisco where both players found themselves signing. And after winning it all for the first time in their career, why not take another shot at it with a chance to defend your title with virtually the same exact group of guys you won it with?
While Scutaro showcased just what he could do in front of a nationally televised audience during the postseason after being traded from the Rockies mid-season where he'd hit .362 in 268 regular season plate appearances with the Giants, Pagan shook off a cold start to his 2012 campaign by setting career bests in doubles and runs as well as set a single-season franchise-record for triples with 13 which also led the National League. And though a four-year deal wasn't ideally what Sabean wanted to award the 31 year old Pagan with, he did what he had to in order to lure in the spark plug of the Giants offense. The re-signing of Pagan also means Bruce Bochy will have a speedy lead-off man who's a threat on the base paths to depend on in the outfield for at least a few more years. Bochy who's been the skipper of the Giants since 2007, will also be around a little longer as he too had his 2014 option picked up by team president and chief executive officer Larry Baer.
With the Giants lineup for the 2013 season just about in place with the likes of Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence, Gregor Blanco and Pagan and Scutaro, Sabean and company hasn't shot down the possibility just yet of adding another piece to the puzzle, one that would most likely be an outfielder, meaning Blanco would have to surrender his duties in left. Such names as Ichiro Suzuki and Nick Swisher who according to reports has San Francisco atop his list of desired destinations have both been thrown around, but might be asking for more greenbacks than what the Giants brain trust has in mind.
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