The Giants just shut out the Dodgers 3 straight times for a sweep for the first time in their history. Our (former) ace, Tim Lincecum put together 7 solid shut out innings being the 3rd such start of the series and the Giants pulled even with the Dodgers for first place in the NL West.
With a Tim Lincecum who may have found his way, I don't know how to put it any other way than to say as Giants fans we have been spoiled silly by this pitching staff.
This isn't spoiled like your mom let you have gummy bears and a snickers bar for dinner. This is like daddy bought their 16 year old a Bentley because they didn't fail their Algebra class. (Math is hard...)
The pitching staff you've seen the past few years is something we've never seen before. Tim Lincecum is supposed to be the ace of the staff, with 2 Cy Young Awards and World Series Ring to prove it. Matt Cain just completed the first perfect game in Giants' history. Vogelsong has a top 5 ERA in the entire league and just outdueled last year's Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw. Bumgarner is just 22 years old and already has pitched a shutout in a world series game and Barry Zito is the resurgent captain hook who happens to have a Cy Young under his belt as well.
One day in the not so distant future, you'll look back and wonder how it was that the Giants consistently had 2-3 starting pitchers with sub 3 ERA's.
Right now only 17 teams in the majors have a starting pitcher with a sub 3 ERA. The Giants have 2 right now, with Bumgarner close with a 3.10 ERA. Only 5 teams in the Major Leagues have 2 sub 3 ERA starting pitchers and only 1 team has 2 starters under 2.30 (the Giants do..).
On a team where Matt Cain has established himself as the new ace of the staff, he doesn't even have the lowest ERA on the team. That honor goes to Ryan Vogelsong who lowered it by a couple points on Monday by blanking the Dodgers for 7 frames.
Just in case you were wondering, having this type of talent on your starting rotation, especially the way the Giants came about it, is not normal. The Giants only spend big on one free agent starting pitcher, and that was Barry Zito. Otherwise, the Giants have 3 homegrown stars in Cain, Lincecum and Bumgarner and a minor league signee in Vogelsong. To draft Cain, then Lincecum and then Bumgarner in succession and have them all be incredibly successful upon being called up to the majors is the crapshoot of all crapshoots.
When we traded away Zach Wheeler, fans were in an uproar over the Giants sacrificing their future pitching star because apparently, every top pitching prospect in the Giants organization will become a legitimate star.
With a possible challenge from the Washington Nationals this year, the Giants have the best and most complete starting rotation in the majors.
With the exception of Madison Bumgarner, Every Giants starter has now had at least one game where they have pitched 7+ innings and allowed 0 runs.
Bumgarner is the odd man out, but please don't shed any tears for him, he's allowed 1 run in 7+ innings of work 7 out of his 15 starts this season.
Yes you are spoiled... We're all spoiled and I hope it lasts a long time.
The last time the Giants shut out a team in 3 consecutive games against ANY opponent was 56 years ago when the Giants were still in New York.
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