Giants Notebook: What to look for in season's second half

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What to watch in the second half of the season

1) The starting rotation will have a new order. Madison Bumgarner leads the pack, followed by Tim Hudson, Tim Lincecum, Ryan Vogelsong, and Matt Cain. Seeing Cain last in the order looks weird, but he's definitely not been the same over the past few years. His record looks worse than his actual pitching, however, and none of the pitchers have showed that they deserve to be demoted from the starting lineup.

Cain's move to the final starter is still it bit shocking, considering he's improved over the course of his last three starts and given up just four total runs.

Over the course of the Giants' downfall, Tim Lincecum probably emerges as the starting pitcher the Giants can trust the most. We'll see if Bumgarner can gain some more consistency and if Hudson can return to the form he was at in the first two months of this season.

2) How will the bullpen improve? As of late in the Giants' tumble in June, the starting pitching has been less of an issue and more of a bullpen problem. There are a handful of games that they could have come away from victorious and instead it took Sergio Romo failing in the final inning or multiple relievers blowing a lead or a tie down the stretch.

Jean Machi needs to return to how he was pitching earlier in the season to aid the bullpen, and it would be terrific for San Francisco if Santiago Casilla could become the go-to guy at the closer position.

3) What helps the Giants down the stretch? They have the easiest record based on win-loss total in the National League. The NL West is a disaster, but more importantly, they have to win games at home again. While it is the easiest schedule, there are more trips further out East. Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, New York Philadelphia, Washington, tonight in Miami are all part of a brutal month and a half slate.

Basically, any stretches of 6-16 a AT&T Park will be unacceptable. They must keep winning the series at home.

Keys to the second half of the season

1. Angel Pagan's health. Now for two straight years, the Giants have fell off the map when Pagan is out for an extended period of time. There's talk of the Giants going after some bats, bud I'd wait to see what happens when Pagan is back at 100 percent.
2. Lincecum's return to dominance. He's absolutely been tearing it up, and fans have truly been celebrating "Tim Lincecum Day" because it's turned out to provide this team's best chance to win in recent weeks.
3. Smash it early. On offense, the Giants need to do two things. Start hitting the ball out of the park again, and do it early. San Francisco is 38-11 when put the first run on the board. They aren't built to be a comeback team. They're built to destroy everybody on the mound, play small ball, and to get runners in with two outs. All of that went missing in June.

Next up: at Marlins (44-50)

Similar to San Francisco, Miami has really struggled heading into the All-Star break pit stop. The Marlins have been a pain in the Giants' side, but they've been tougher to handle at AT&T Park. Dealing with plenty of injuries like Jarrod Saltalamacchia and A.J. Ramos out along with their ace Jose Fernandez, SF must capitalize and get off to a solid start in the back half of the season just to gain a little bit of momentum.