Pitching the name of Giants’ game

Trying to find a San Francisco Giants hitter among the league leaders is a chore.

The Giants’ team leader among regulars in batting average entering Monday was Aubrey Huff, at a whopping .245. Huff also led Giants regulars in on-base percentage, at .303.

So how were the defending world champions even hanging around the National League West, at 4 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks as they fell 4-0 to the Cubs on Monday night at AT&T Park?

Look no further than the pitching.

While you’ve got to scroll down more than a page to find Huff’s name on the list of NL hitters, Giants pitchers are pretty easy to find.

Monday’s starter, Tim Lincecum, began the game second in the league in ERA (2.46). Ryan Vogelsong, who works Tuesday, was second (2.54).

The Cubs will miss Matt Cain, who has the NL’s ninth-best ERA (2.87). But they’ll face Madison Bumgarner in Wednesday’s finale. Bumgarner is 22nd in the NL in ERA, at 3.59.

“Lincecum, Vogelsong and Bumgarner, come on, that’s no big deal,” Cubs manager Mike Quade joked Sunday in Milwaukee as he looked forward to the series in San Francisco. “Their pitching speaks for itself. It’s been the backbone for them both last year in their championship and this year.

“They have struggled offensively. But they find a way to compete because they’re just so darn good on the mound. They’ve made that work.”

For comparison’s sake, the top Cubs pitcher in ERA is Matt Garza, who checked in 27th, at 3.68. Ryan Dempster was 50th, at 4.76.

So if the Cubs are entertaining any notion of being “competitive” in the NL Central next year, let alone contending, it seems they’re going to have to find at least two serviceable starting pitchers this coming off-season.

While the Giants entered the game second in team ERA (3.12), the Cubs were 15th (4.53).

Garza and Dempster figure to be mainstays of next year’s rotation, but after that, it’s wide open. One pitcher from whom the Cubs need consistency is Randy Wells, who outdueled Lincecum en route to pitching a complete-game 7-0 shutout.

The Cubs grabbed a 6-0 lead on homers by Alfonso Soriano in the fifth and Geovany Soto, Blake DeWitt and Carlos Pena in the seventh.

Wells now owns a four-game winning streak that has moved his record to 6-4. He spent much of the first two months of this season battling a forearm strain, and it took him awhile to find his groove once he came back. Quade told reporters before the game it was too early to say pitchers such as Wells and Casey Coleman were auditioning for 2012.

“His last outing, his last couple, were pretty good,” Quade said.

“Getting back to the guy that we saw before the injury. Really important for him to finish the season strong and be the guy that we’ve seen in the past. You’re auditioning every time you go out and play, to a certain extent. When you’re out once every five days, it probably becomes a little more important. I’d rather say they’re trying to find out who they can be. Probably Randy, to me, more so than Casey, knows who he can be and has been that guy. And he’s trying to get back to where he was.”