I was hoping that the Giants could wrap up their excellent home stand and head out on the road with a 17-15 record, but 16-16 is still good, especially considering half their loses came during that one streak that we won’t mention anymore.

Despite a 7-3 home stand, and the general good vibes that accompany the team these days, there are two significant concerns that stand out to me. First, the Giants still have -23 run differential. Wins are wins, as they say, but the way the Giants are doing this, with so many walk offs and one-run affairs, is unsustainable and leads one to fear that another losing streak is right around the corner. The Giants have a lot of road games coming up, this is a precarious time.

As mentioned, the Giants are 7-3 in the last 10, but meanwhile the Dodgers have gone 8-2. So even though the overall record looks a lot better, the Giants have actually lost ground in the division and now sit 5.5 games out, which is as far back as they’ve been all year. We all know the Giants are fine with the Dodgers winning the division, and taking the Wild Card route to glory, but the Dodgers are at +53 right now, which is the best mark in baseball.

I know this is not how this stat works, but the Dodgers are 76 runs better than the Giants. And we’re only half way through May. This is not a good sign.

The Giants continue to win by getting out to an early lead and holding on for dear life. I think Sunday’s walk off was the first come from behind win of the year (at least that I can think of). The Giants need to score more runs. Bottom line.

Hitter of the Week:

The Casey McGehee grand slam was awesome. He then proceeded to ground into two more double plays, and his line for the week was still terrible: .167/.167/.417. That’s what you get with one home run and a lot of outs. Brandon Belt has been marvelous (.524/.600/.810), and hopefully some games in Houston and Cincinnati will translate into some home runs for him.

Pitcher of the Week:

I have a draft of a post that demonstrates how when (and if) the Giants ever get completely healthy it sure looks like Ryan Vogelsong is the odd man out. However, after this past week, that argument has gone out the window and that post remains stashed in the “draft” folder. Vogey had two starts this week and he threw 14 stellar innings: 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 hits, and 9 strikeouts. Hard to imagine anything better from him these days. He’s making the rotation conversation that much harder. Hat tip to Tim Lincecum who has now thrown 15 straight scoreless innings.

Looking Ahead:

The Giants are in Houston for a quick two games and then head to Cincinnati for four. They then come back to the Bay for a short three game home stand (all against the Dodgers), and then hit the road again. We’re looking for the G-men to stay around the .500 mark with a 3-3 effort this week and then make a dent against LA when they come back home.

Go Giants!

-SB