Giants desperate for a winning homestand

Alright folks, that’s another week in the books for the Giants bizarre 2013 campaign.

And actually, when you take away the trade deadline jitters and the Brian Wilson-gone-South shenanigans to the hated Dodgers, it wasn’t too terrible of a week at that.

The Giants didn’t completely embarrass themselves on the road this past week. They took two-out-of-three in Philadelphia, and despite some very frustrating play down at Tropicana Field, salvaged a win against a very good Rays team.

So the boys in Orange and Black went 3-3 on the six-game roadie. Now what?

They’re still in last place, 49-61 for the season, and 12 games back in the division. However, over this past week, they haven’t played like a team with no chance of playing a postseason; they’re playing like they still have a shot at October ball.

This is a ball club trying to work out its kinks and right itself, whether it be for this current season, or simply looking at seasons to come.

Either way, San Francisco is looking to play better baseball. And this is what they are looking to accomplish in the upcoming homestand:

New leadoff power? : Word on the street is that both Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro are in the running to be Bruce Bochy’s new “lead-off guy.”

A large honor, especially when you consider that San Francisco has really been without a proper lead-off man for the majority of 2013.

Not that Gregor Blanco and Andres Torres haven’t had their strokes of brilliance here and there. But it doesn’t take a PhD or ninja skills to see that neither has brought the consistency or swagger needed to fill Angel Pagan’s shoes as the quintessential lead-off guy.

Perhaps the move to put Scutaro or Pence in that top spot will benefit the whole offense.

While we’re still talking about offense…:The roadtrip saw a dip in the number of players that the Giants left stranded on base.

But they still aren’t scoring many runs, ranking 24th out of 30 in MLB (12 out of 15 in the National League) and lost their final two road games by one run each.

With a bit of an offensive boost away from AT&T Park, expect San Francisco’s offense to be extra hungry this homestand when it comes to scoring runs.

Particularly since San Francisco’s starting pitching has improved, they don’t have a whole lot of run support to show for it.

Starting rotation?: Bochy took the axe to the starting rotation when he skipped Barry Zito’s Sunday start down in Tampa Bay in favor of Guillermo Moscoso who was not the answer.

While it is still uncertain as to whether or not we’ve seen the last of the veteran southpaw in the Giants’ rotation, it’s a definite that there will continue to be some shuffling in order to keep the current starters fresh, and the bullpen from going into the costly slump it did back in the month of June.

The San Francisco Giants kick off the week long homestand with a four-game series against the visiting Milwaukee Brewers followed by a weekend set versus the Baltimore Orioles. A 4-3 record would be ideal.

Monday night, Chad Gaudin (5-2, 2.64) opposes Milwaukee’s Tyler Thornburg (1-0, 2.22). First pitch is at 7:15 p.m.