Giants’ resurgent rotation among 10 May takeaways

We have entered the month that signifies the start of summer, the month when the heat kicks on and the ball flies further and every team tries to avoid that dreaded “swoon” that satisfies in rhyme but not in reason.

But we couldn’t have gotten here without May. You were good to us, May. You rescued us from April’s obscurities and anomalies and gave us a more mature understanding of what this 2016 season entails. You taught us many things.

Here are 10 things May taught us.

1. The Giants did, indeed, improve their rotation.

That they had spent to improve their rotation was not in question. But there was no way to be sure Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija — the club’s new, expensive arrivals to the starting five fronted by Madison Bumgarner — would pay off. Cueto had an erratic ’15, while the Shark was one of the Majors’ worst-performing qualifiers.

But in May, Bumgarner, Cueto and Samardzija combined to go 12-2 with a 1.73 ERA, striking out 124 and walking just 29.

There are other reasons the Giants, who were under .500 as recently as May 10, have suddenly built themselves a little cushion atop the National League West, but it all started with this group.

2. Bryce Harper is having a ball.

And we don’t mean that in a good way.

In April, 42.8 percent of the pitches thrown to Harper were in the strike zone, per FanGraphs’ data. In May, it was just 36.1 percent — the lowest such percentage among qualified hitters. And while all those balls succeeded in keeping Harper’s on-base percentage at an elite level (Harper memorably walked 13 times in a three-game series with the Cubs and six times in a single game), the rest of his numbers cratered.

Harper had trouble doing damage against what few strikes he saw, batting just .200 with a .363 slugging percentage in 28 May games before getting hit by a pitch (a strike of a different sort) in the knee on Memorial Day.

In short, there was a major change in approach to Harper in May, and, for now, it is working quite well.

3. Clayton Kershaw has never been better.

And that’s a high bar, of course. But here’s all you need to know about Kershaw’s month: He had fewer walks allowed (two) than he had hits — of his own — at the plate (three)!

Oh, and he had three shutouts, too.

In six May starts, Kershaw allowed five runs on 24 hits with a .354 opponents’ OPS. It …

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