Gonzalez held the Giants to a run in 7 1/3 innings. He walked Angel Pagan with one out in the eighth inning then was pulled for reliever Drew Storen. He allowed four hits and two walks, while striking out five. He threw a season-high 116 pitches.

Gonzalez, who has lowered his ERA to 3.66 with four quality starts in a row, will next start Tuesday against the Orioles. 

Sunday marked the first time since the left-hander's season debut April 3 he did not permit a run as he lowered his ERA to 4.20 and halted a three-game stretch of allowing at least one homer. He had six strikeouts and walked one.

Gonzalez draws San Diego in his next start, Friday on the road. He limited the Padres to two hits over six innings during his lone start against them last season.

Gonzalez has a 4.97 ERA in his first seven starts, while averaging fewer than six innings per start.

Gonzalez has two big issues to look at when analyzing his slow start, one surprising and one not so much. The unsurprising news is Gonzalez is struggling with his control, as he walked 4.30 batters per nine innings from 2009-2011, so his 4.74 mark this season is not a huge surprise. The bigger surprise is that Gonzalez has allowed five home runs in 38 innings, after allowing just nine in 199 1/3 innings a year ago. Which one should be our bigger concern moving forward?

Gonzalez has managed to be effectively wild in his past, posting a 3.12 and 3.23 ERA in 2011 and 2010 respectively, despite walk rates greater than 4.0 per nine innings. He should be able to find the strikezone more often, but he is also the type of pitcher who can pitch around those free passes when everything is going right.

His home run rate is more than a bit surprising, as Gonzalez has never allowed a home run on more than 8.9 percent of his flyballs in a full season, as he has allowed a 15.2 percent rate so far. He is still racking up solid groundball rates, so this could just be a bit of bad luck with balls flying over the fence at an unsustainable rate.

The home runs allowed will be the more important thing to watch moving forward. Baserunners are going to get on against a pitcher with a career 1.33 WHIP, so he just has to make sure they don't score in bunches due to extra-base hits. Given his track record, I believe in Gonzalez. I would not try to sell low on him right now. 

After allowing a home run on his first pitch to Starling Marte, the left-hander quickly regained his composure and held the Pirates scoreless until the sixth inning. He also displayed improvement with his command after walking five batters in his previous outing, effectively spotting his pitches on both sides of the plate to handcuff the Pirates.

Thanks to scheduling intricacies, Gonzalez won't make his next start until May 12 against the Cubs. He is holding opponents to a .169 batting average at home this season.