By Morris Phillips

The Giants have won at the best clip in all of baseball for over a month, and they didn’t show any signs of slowing down on Thursday in their return to AT&T Park.

Chris Heston pitched into the eighth inning without allowing a run, and captured his pitching battle with Braves’ ace Shelby Miller as the Giants won 7-0 in a game that was scoreless for the first six innings.

Hot-hitting Brandon Belt homered off Miller in the seventh, and the Giants tacked on six runs with seven hits in the eighth to win going away.

After winning 25 of 35, the Giants are just a half game behind the Dodgers in the NL West, a total 360 from their eight-game losing streak in early April that landed them in the division cellar.  While health is major reason for the surge, Heston’s a big factor too, stepping in for the one still absent, significant piece—starter Matt Cain—without any noticeable dropoff.

The Giants have won each of Heston’s last four starts whether the rookie has been just OK or spot on like he was Thursday.  Heston has had a couple of shaky outings, but he’s proven resilient, throwing more innings (62 1/3) than any other rookie this season.  Like the grizzled veterans he’s sharing the rotation with, he’s been unflappable with his seasoned approach.

“Just seemed like he was keeping guys off balance all night hitting his spots,” Belt said of Heston’s outing.  “When your ball moves like his does you can get with a lot of stuff.  And lot of guys don’t put the ball on the barrel.”

Heston’s clearly been more relaxed at AT&T Park–with the cool temperatures and heavy air–allowing him to be less burdened in his approach, saying, “You know you can throw strikes in hitter’s counts and let your defense work.”

The rookie was threatened only once all evening, in the sixth when the Braves had runners at first and third.  But Heston escaped, getting Nick Markakis to ground out to end the inning.

Heston won his matchup with Miller as a hitter as well.  While Miller looked so feeble striking out in the third, Kruk and Kuip felt obligated to reignite the designated hitter in the National League debate, Heston acquitted himself quite well, doubling for his first major league hit in the sixth.

The Giants batted around in the eighth–the second time they’ve done that in the last four games—and all the solid contact was befitting of a lineup of mostly .300 hitters.  In that breakout inning, Hunter Pence tripled, and Belt, Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik had doubles.

After failing to score more than six runs in any of their first 32 ballgames, the Giants have done it eight times in their last 16.

Of all the impressive hitters in the Giants’ current lineup, Belt stands out, with all six of his round-trippers hit since May 15.  Belt’s blast in the seventh was his first this season at AT&T Park.  For a guy whose seen major struggles in each of the last two seasons, he’s no doubt locked in, hitting both his double and homer into the opposite field gap.

“I hit both on the barrel of the bat,” he said.

“A couple of those home runs he hit on the road were crushed,” manager Bruce Bochy said.  “(He’s a) big strong guy.”

The Giants look to grab a sixth straight at home on Friday night with Atlanta’s Mike Foltynewicz facing a guy with a lengthy history as a Brave, Tim Hudson, at 7:15pm.