By far the biggest surprise in baseball as the All-Star break approaches has to be the San Francisco Giants.
The Giants were conceivably a last-place team coming into the season, and they started off shaky as well. However, the pitching kept their heads above water and now the hitting is finally starting to come around.
This team is built to make a big splash if they figure out a way to grab that NL Wild Card, and it mostly thanks to their stellar starting pitching rotation that features two All-Stars in Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum.
In case you didn't hear, Lincecum's streak of scoreless innings ended at 29 last night against the Padres. That's good for the best since 1970 in Giants history.
The mediocre stats of Randy Johnson and Barry Zito can largely be attributed to no run support. Both of these guys, especially Johnson, are capable of throwing gems at any moment and were proven aces at one point or another.
However, the bats have started to come alive in San Francisco as well.
One guy that just narrowly missed the All-Star game that has been swinging the bat very well is Pablo Sandoval. He's hitting .328 with 13 home runs and 50 RBI's.
Aaron Rowand and Bengie Molina also have decent numbers in the batter's box.
If the Giants continue to improve hitting the ball, then we could be looking at another version of the 2007 Rockies that made an unexpected World Series run.
Giants Starting Pitching Rotation
- Tim Lincecum 2.33 ERA, 10-2, 149 K's
- Matt Cain 2.42 ERA, 10-2, 93 K's
- Randy Johnson 4.81 ERA, 8-6, 80 K's
- Barry Zito 4.43 ERA, 5-8, 79 K's
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