April recap: Great pitching, more spotty offense

The Giants finished the first month of the season 13-9 and quickly made it 14-9 with a win on May 1st.

Matt Cain worked eight masterful innings for his first win of the season, yielding just one hit and no runs as the G-Men cruised to a 6-1 victory.

It's been quite a homestand as the Giants took two of three from division-leading St. Louis, two more from two-time defending NL champion Philadelphia and go for the sweep today against last year's NL wild card.

As far as an early season measuring stick the Giants got a good one and they have fared really well.

The starting pitching - a strength everyone knew about - as been even better than expected.

Tim Lincecum: 4-0, 1.27 ERA, 0.82 WHIP, 7 BB, 42 K's
Barry Zito: 4-0, 1.53 ERA, 0.88 WHIP
Matt Cain: 1-1, 2.84 ERA, 1.01 WHIP
Jonathan Sanchez: 2-1, 1.85 ERA, 1.11 WHIP

The Giants have three starters in the top-8 in the NL in ERA (four in the top-17) and last year's late-season number five starter, Brad Penny is seventh at 1.56. Oh, what could have been.

Disregarding the current fifth starter, Todd Wellemeyer, who did pitch very well in a win against the Phillies on Tuesday, the Giants top-four starters are 11-2 with a 1.83 ERA.

The Giants would be very, very dangerous in a seven-game series with that group going out there.

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The offense went threw a horrible stretch - seven runs in 11 games - but has righted itself of late.

The Giants are leading the major leagues in hitting, yes you read that right, with a .282 batting average but the problem is still two-fold: a) Getting big-hits with runners in scoring position and b) Scoring runs away from AT&T Park.

Despite that leading clip they are just 19th in runs scored, meaning they are getting on base more frequently but still struggling to plate the guys once they are there.

The G-Men go back on the road tomorrow for three in Florida starting Tuesday and then three with the Mets. It would be a great time for those bats to wake up on the road and continue the recent success they have had at home.

SF is 10-4 at home and just 4-5 on the road, which includes that sweep of the Astros to start the season.

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If the Giants continue to pitch the way they have been, and the offense can give the staff some breathing room this club can really make some noise in the fall months.

Matt Cain talked about how much easier it was pitching with the lead yesterday. For a guy who has the lowest run support (3.76) during his time in the big leagues, he really knows what he's talking about.

Barry Zito is 107-6 with four runs of support and Sanchez' only loss was a game in which the Padres managed only one hit.

The foundation is there and the Giants are starting to build on it. Just one question remains: Can Buster Posey play left field?