The San Francisco Giants are slowly creeping up the National League West standings after a successful week.

The San Francisco Giants returned home after a 4-6 road trip for their only homestand of May. They began the trip east with an impressive sweep of the Atlanta Braves but faltered mightily on the Pennsylvania leg of the journey. The Giants dropped four straight to the Philadelphia Phillies and lost two out of three in Pittsburgh. They salvaged the last game against the Pirates, ensuring a much more peaceful flight home.

Slated to face to Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies, the Giants needed to get back on track. Their record stood at 20-21 and they were 4.5 games back of the Diamondbacks. Fortunately for the Giants, during their six-game losing streak this past week, Arizona was also not playing well.

Monday against the Reds got off to a fast start as the Giants broke out for three runs in the first inning. Evan Longoria singled in a run and Brandon Crawford doubled in a couple more. Andrew McCutchen earned his 1,500th career hit and Brandon Belt homered (which was a theme for the week). The Giants took the first game of the three-game set with Reds 10-7.

In game two, the Giants fell behind early, 3-0. In a bold move with one out and the bases loaded in the fourth, manager Bruce Bochy decided to pinch hit for starting pitcher Ty Blach. The move paid off as Pablo Sandoval sliced a two-run single to left and the Giants tied the game at three. Belt’s homer to start the inning and McCutchen’s RBI fielder’s choice gave the Giants the lead for good. They went onto win 5-3.

The Reds raced out to another early lead on getaway day, tacking on four runs in the first off Giants starter Andrew Suarez. Former Giant Adam Duvall put the Reds up early with a big hit, a three-run homer, his second of the series. The Giants battled back, scoring two in the first and then adding another in the third via another Belt homer, this one off of Matt Harvey, making just his second start as a Red.

The game ended, however, somewhat controversially. Trailing 6-3, Belt was rung up by home plate umpire Doug Eddings on a pitch outside of the strike zone. Belt had some choice words about the situation after the game and got a call from Major League Baseball Chief Officer Joe Torre. According to an ESPN story, Bochy did not expect any further action from the Commissioner’s office.

San Francisco Giants split series against Colorado Rockies.

With the Rockies in town for a four-game set, Jeff Samardzija and the Giants got off to a “Rockie” start. Colorado scored three runs in the second inning before the Shark settled in. The Giants later tied the game on a (you guessed it) Belt home run that was corrected on a replay review. It was a 3-3 stalemate into the 12th inning until Carlos Gonzalez blooped a bases-loaded single to score a pair. The Giants once again had issues over balls and strikes as Crawford was sent to an early shower on a called strike three. Bochy also came out to argue and suffered a similar fate.

Gorkys Hernandez showed off some sneaky pop, leading off Friday night’s game with a home run. However, the Rockies answered with an Ian Desmond three-run shot in the fourth to take the lad off of Derek Holland. Charlie Blackmon padded the lead in the ninth with a two-run blast and the Rockies grabbed the first two games of the series.

Needing to salvage a split in the series and a winning homestand, the Giants responded over the weekend. Crawford, who also had himself a nice week, served a two-run double to left to give the Giants the lead in the third. McCutchen gave the Giants some cushion in the fifth with a two-run double, followed by a Crawford two-RBI jack the following inning.

The Giants floundered to a 4-1 deficit in the fifth inning of the series finale before Hernandez showed off his surprising power, going deep to center to cut into the Rockies lead, 4-3. With the game tied at five in the seventh, Belt came up to the plate and delivered another long ball to the bleachers. It was a three-run blast and fifth of the week. The Giants were able to split the series with Colorado and finish the homestand with four wins and three losses.

After playing 17 consecutive games in as many days, the Giants finally earned a day off as they travel to Houston to take on the defending World Champion Astros for a short two-game series. They follow that up with a weekend series in Chicago against the Cubs before closing the month of May with a three-game set in Denver.

Belt was named National League Player of the Week, hitting .444 with 12 hits and 11 RBI to go with those five dingers. The Giants battled back to a .500 record (24-24) and now trail the Diamondbacks by two games as of May 22nd.