A lot has happened in the past 5 days for the Giants, and that's an understatement.

After starting the second half of the season today, they sit atop the NL West tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were busy keeping the St. Louis Cardinals at bay. The Cardinals will come into San Francisco for a 3 day mid-week series, after the off day tomorrow.

Bochy has decided to pull the plug on Romo being the closer, after blowing a 1-0 lead on Saturday night, leaving a closer-by-committee solution on the table for the time being. And for the first time since early 2012, the Giants will be looking for another regular closing option.

The Giants have been swept for the first time since 1972 in a 4 game set by the Cincinnati Reds. This now makes the third time the Giants have been swept in June of 2014,  leaving them at 10-16 for the month.

The bats were not there for most of the series, more so in the last game of the series against Homer Bailey. Mike Leake who got tagged around in his first outing against the Giants in early June, made quick work of them the second time around. Johnny Cueto pitched into the 9th while protecting the lead for the Reds on Friday. Chapman & Co. came in to help preserve the efforts by the Reds' starters.

Simply put, there is been a lack of production looming over this offense. Losing Angel Pagan and Brandon Belt, struggles with their replacements, combined with a weak bench and some lackluster performances by the regulars have exposed the Giants. They will be getting Pagan and Belt back within week's time, and hopefully they will be able to get the offense back on track. Michael Morse will also need to turn it around, as he has only had 5 hits in the last 10 games and hasn't homered since early June against the Reds.

The good news is that Cain and Hudson both had solid outings this weekend, which is promising considering their last few starts. A bullpen which was rather overused in the first couple of months is also starting to show signs of fatigue, which means that the starters will need to step it up in the last couple of weeks before the All-Star Break. The Giants need 4 more wins to get to the 50 win mark, and they have 13 games left before the break. Needless to say they should make it a goal to get there before the break shows up and then some.