By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – When your team gets shut out, as this one did Wednesday night, you ask whether the offense was lousy or if the pitcher was just really good. In this particular case, it was clearly the latter.

The Giants got stifled by a stellar Adam Wainwright, who kept the Giants off-balance for most of the night and forcing them into mostly weak groundouts, as the Giants suffered a 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at AT&T Park. They were shut out for the seventh time this season, twice by the Cardinals.

Despite the setback, however, the Giants remain atop the National League West, at least for one more day. The

The Giants knew that they were in for a battle against Wainwright, though, since the right-hander had given up only two runs over his previous three starts, during which he pitched 23 innings. He didn’t miss a beat on Wednesday, as he went 7 2/3 innings and gave up only four hits, walking two and striking out one in keeping the Giants from crossing the plate.

In the process, Wainwright now owns the lowest ERA in the majors, surpassing Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto (1.99) with a mark of 1.89.

Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong ripped through the first two innings on Wednesday but ran into big trouble in the third, during which the Cardinals scored a pair of runs. Oscar Taveras led off with a double down the right-field line, and Mark Ellis followed that with a single before Matt Carpenter singled to bring in Taveras.

Matt Holliday then singled in Ellis and gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead and, although Vogelsong settled down very nicely to go seven innings and surrender only one more hit the rest of the way.

Unfortunately for him, Vogelsong has started to get used to this. He has not gotten any run support for the second straight start, as he surrendered only three runs in 13 innings while allowing only one walk while striking out 15 batters in those two starts, both losses.

Meanwhile, the Giants were only able to mount a pair of scoring threats against Wainwright. Oddly enough, both of those rallies were started by a rookie and not considered a big star by any stretch.

Rookie second baseman Joe Panik led off the sixth with a single before Vogelsong put down a nice sac bunt to get him over to second while Gregor Blanco almost beat out a grounder but nonetheless moved Panik to third.

However, Hunter Pence could not bring him in, as his bouncer to short ended the inning and kept the Giants off the scoreboard.

The Giants put together a two-out rally against Wainwright, as Panik and Hector Sanchez strung together back-to-back hits to put runners on the corners as well as get Wainwright out of the game. However, after working the count full, Blanco, who has not given the Giants very much at the plate at all this season, popped out to end the inning and keep the shutout intact.