Does anyone know a good travel agent?

It not unreasonable to think the Padres have circles the four remaining series with San Francisco on their calendar. They’ve also called a travel agent and booked vacations for Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto for those dates.

One day after Bumgarner threw a one-run complete game against the Firars it was Cueto who did the same, leading the Giants to a 2-1 win Wednesday at San Diego. The suddenly-hot G-Men (24-18) have won a season-high seven straight and, thanks to a Los Angeles loss to the crosstown rival Halos, hold a two-game lead over the Dodgers and Rockies in the NL West at the quarter pole.

When the opposing pitcher has this much fun watching the game, you're in trouble. (AP Photo)

Cueto mastered the Padres for the second time in a month, allowing a run on just four hits. In a world where twos rule, it was also the second straight night on which the game was pretty much decided on a single at-bat.

San Diego’s Drew Pomeranz was almost as good, allowing two runs on four hits over six innings, but suffered one brief case of the yips that cost him the decision.

Pomeranz hadn’t allowed a run in his last 18 innings and was staked to a 1-0 lead on Alexei Ramirez’ RBI single the second. But the streak came to an end when he walked Buster Posey to lead off the fourth. Hunter Pence made him regret it, lofting a fly to right that probably scraped the back of the wall coming down. But it was the back, and the Giants had their 2-1 lead.

The offenses pretty much took the rest of the night off. San Diego didn’t get a runner past first base after putting up its only tally. The lone exception seemed to be Denard Span, who had two of the Giants’ four hits. Posey also singled to complete the ledger.

The offense, the entire offense, in one photo. (AP Photo)

The story was Cueto, who shook, shimmed and defended his way to his sixth win of the year. He struck out eight, walked a pair, and lowered his ERA to a stellar 2.70. In eight starts he’s gone seven innings or more seven times and leads the staff with 66 2/3 innings pitched.

But it’s the manner in which he’s demoralizing opponents that demands attention, even if he doesn’t. Cueto laughs and jokes his way through games, seemingly without a care in the world. He seems to be without a plan, making one up as he goes. He’s not obnoxious about it, so opponents don’t go into ABs with that look of grit and ire reserved for the game’s top hurlers.

Then foes look at the scoreboard, they’re trailing in the eighth inning, and Cueto is throwing harder than he did in the first. And he's still smiling' the last laugh is his.

It’s been a trend of late. Thanks to back end of the rotation taking a break from an extended run of suckitude, the starters have posted an ERA of 1.72 over the last dozen contests. No surprise, during that stretch the Giants are 9-3.

It’s also no surprise the Giants are getting well, in part, against San Diego. They’ve won five straight and 13 of 16 against the guys from Bordertown. As Mike Krukow would say, ownage is ownage.

They’ll go for a a sweep of the series and the road trip on Thursday evening with Jeff Samardzija (5-2, 2.88) hopping to follow up on his one-run, eight-inning outing at Arizona. San Diego counters with James Shields (2-5, 3.12), coming off seven scoreless innings at Milwaukee.

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