Major League Baseball

Giants' individual parts just add up

Published Oct. 31, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Ken Rosenthal

They are the team of Mays and McCovey and Bonds. But Sunday night, as the 2010 Giants moved within one victory of the franchise’s first World Series title in San Francisco, manager Bruce Bochy started:

• First baseman Travis Ishikawa for the first time since Aug. 14.

• Right fielder Nate Schierholtz for the first time since Sept. 15.

• Aubrey Huff at designated hitter for the first time all season.

Only Huff played a major role, hitting a two-run homer to spark a 4-0 victory in Game 4 of the World Series. But this is why I love the Giants. They are greater than the sum of their parts, a collection that defies every computer program, the very definition of team.

The Series isn’t over, mind you. The Rangers’ three best pitchers — Cliff Lee, C.J. Wilson and Colby Lewis — are lined up on full rest. Problem is, the Rangers will need to beat Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and probably Madison Bumgarner on short rest to steal the Series.

Not impossible. But not likely, either.

“For some reason, it’s our point in time,” Giants general manager Brian Sabean said, not claiming the title prematurely, just speaking in general about his team’s season.

“I’ve said it over and over. Sometimes, the group picks the time. But on the baseball wheel of fortune, so to speak, sometimes the time gets picked for you.”

Listening to Sabean, it sounds almost like the Giants are a team of destiny, a team beholden to some greater power.

Wrong.

The Giants are winning mostly because of their homegrown starting pitching — Lincecum in Game 1, Cain in Game 2 and, most striking of all, Bumgarner in Game 4.

And while they are catching some breaks — two disputed calls at first base went their way Sunday night — they also are finally, ridiculously hot, batting .400/.462/.743 with runners in scoring position in the Series.

Some of this is attributable to luck, small sample size, whatever. Statistical analysts might spend all winter trying to figure just how the Giants did it, then dismiss them a a “fluky” champion. In some respects that would be true. But “unusual” champion might be more accurate.

“It’s like no team I’ve ever been part of,” Schierholtz said. “I’ve never seen this many people contribute. That’s what makes us a winning team. No one is worried about playing time, where they’re going to play, when they’re coming in. Everyone knows we’re here for the same reason — to win.”

Schierholtz learned he was starting Game 4 at 2 p.m. Sunday when fellow outfielder Aaron Rowand sent him a text message. Rowand, an early arrival at Rangers Ballpark, once was a regular. He said he didn’t want Schierholtz to be “ambushed” by the news.

Once Schierholtz reached the clubhouse, he chatted with Ishikawa, a player dubbed “Smoky” by Bochy and third base coach Tim Flannery for his similarity to Smoky Burgess, a prolific pinch-hitter of the past.

“We were pretty surprised,” Schierholtz said. “We were trying to figure out the last time we both started together.”

The date was July 23 — so long ago that outfielder Cody Ross was a Marlin, left-handed reliever Javier Lopez was a Pirate and third baseman Pablo Sandoval was still playing regularly.

Bochy is drawing well-earned praise for his juggling of the roster, but many of his moves arise out of sheer necessity. He had little choice but to bench the slumping Pat Burrell on Sunday night and little reason to give Sandoval a second straight start at DH.

Hence, the insertions of Schierholtz and Ishikawa, both of whom went hitless, and the shifting of Huff to the DH role.

The lineup produced the Giants’ best possible defensive alignment. The team, left fielder Ross and second baseman Freddy Sanchez in particular, played a brilliant defensive game.

No longer must Bochy use players at less familiar positions due to injuries or roster issues. Huff has played first base, right and left; Juan Uribe second base, short and third. Now, at the season’s most important juncture, the Giants are whole.

Heck, they’re even hitting.

Shortstop Edgar Renteria might want to put off retirement — he is 6-for-14 in the Series. Center fielder Andres Torres, who started the postseason 3 for 26 and was benched in Game 3 of the NLCS, has since gone 12 for 28. And don’t even talk about the mysterious Uribe, who is batting only .140 in the postseason, but has driven in some of the Giants’ biggest runs.

“It seems like we’re a 25-man cohesive unit — with great pitching,” the injured Mark DeRosa said.

That’s exactly who they are.

No Mays. No McCovey. No Bonds.

Just a team, an unlikely, overachieving band of brothers, ready to deliver a World Series title to San Francisco once and for all.

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