By Morris Phillips

The Giants’ tepid start to the season doesn’t mean their season is over before the calendar turns to May.

However, their season is on the ropes, and the Dodgers and Rockies will look to push the reigning World Champs out of the ring entirely this week.

The only thing wrong with the 4-10 Giants is everything. The offense has been most ineffective, ranking 13^th in the National League with 2.6 runs scored per game.   Injuries to Hunter Pence, Brandon Belt have hurt the team’s ability to generate runs as have the inability to come up with big hits with runners aboard.

The pitching has struggled as expected with Matt Cain on the shelf, World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner off his game and Jake Peavy struggling. The Giants rank 11^th in the National League with a team ERA of 3.94. With Peavy placed on the disabled list, the Giants will take their day off on Monday as an opportunity to temporarily reduce the rotation to four starters this week.

Compounding their pitching issues are a NL West-heavy schedule that has the Giants facing offenses that currently rank 1-2-3 in the league in the Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Padres. Simply, the strategy of pitching and winning tight, low-scoring ballgames loses effectiveness if the Giants are grouped with teams that can score better than five runs a game.

The Dodgers arrive Tuesday for a three-game series leading the league with 17 home runs hit thus far. Rookie Joc Pederson has settled in as the team’s centerfielder and Adrian Gonzalez continues to be one of the best hitters anywhere, currently batting .469. Of course, the Dodgers would love to damage the Giants’ prospects after being forced to watch their deep playoff runs on television the last couple of years.

An equally challenging series in Denver against the Rockies over the weekend awaits after the battle with the Dodgers.

Tim Lincecum gets the start Tuesday night opposite former Athletic Brett Anderson at 7:15pm.