GIANTS’ RECIPE: A HEAPING OF SMARTS, A DOLLOP OF LUCK
DETROIT — Back in spring training, in his office at Scottsdale Stadium, Brian Sabean still seemed amazed at the season that had just taken place.
The 2011 San Francisco Giants had won 86 games to finish second in the National League West. Nothing remarkable there, except that they had been last in the league in runs scored, mostly because of a barrage of injuries. The only time the Giants had scored fewer runs in a nonstrike season was 1985, when they lost 100 games for the only time in the proud history of the franchise. “There’s a reason we scored 570 runs,” said Sabean, the Giants’ general manager. “I swear we almost ran out of players. It really is a testament to our pitching staff.”
The 2011 Giants allowed only 578 runs, essentially duplicating the pitching performance of the championship staff from 2010, which allowed 583. Though the total rose this season, to 649, it was still well below the league average. And in late October, again, the Giants have turned into a staff of Christy Mathewsons.
The Giants arrived at Comerica Park for Game 4 of the World Series on Sunday with an 0.67 earned run average in their last six postseason games, never trailing in any. That remarkable run, which included four shutouts, was the longest postseason winning streak in Giants history.
It put the Giants on the verge of a second championship in three years, and the Detroit Tigers’ hitters seemed almost totally baffled. Two titles in three years might not count as a dynasty, just yet, but it is getting awfully close.
The New York Yankees won four of five World Series from 1996 through 2000, a stretch that looks ever more remarkable as the years go by. Since then, the Yankees have continued to use their financial advantage to reach the postseason every year but one. Yet they have won only one World Series in that span.
Larry Baer, the Giants’ chief executive, speaks often about brains being more important than money. In other words, anybody can allocate dollars, but the trick is to spend wisely, no matter the budget. The Giants have not always done this — they wildly overpaid for Aaron Rowand and Barry Zito — but in general their moves make sense.
Of course, in an era when 10 teams make the playoffs, a lot of front offices look smart. The Giants seem especially wise these days, but eight other franchises have also reached the playoffs at least twice in the last three seasons. They are the Texas Rangers, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Tigers, the Yankees, the Philadelphia Phillies, the Cincinnati Reds, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves.
Have the Giants simply gotten hot at the right time, as any one of those frequent playoff visitors could have done, in theory? Or does their postseason performance in 2010 and 2012 make their formula — pitching, defense and contact hitters — the smartest one and a model for others to follow?
The Boston Red Sox were the last team to win two championships in a short span, in 2004 and 2007. Their manager then, Terry Francona, said he did not consider that team a dynasty and disputed the idea that one team’s strategy could be called, definitively, the right one.
“Whoever wins, wins, but the formula — I don’t know,” said Francona, the new Cleveland Indians manager, who is working for ESPN this World Series. “I mean, you don’t push a button. You have to be good, you have to be a little bit fortunate, and then you have to be good enough to take advantage of that good fortune. That’s all good teams.”
The Giants could have been a quick out in this postseason. They lost their first two division series games at home to the Reds, and then managed one hit through nine innings of their first elimination game at Great American Ballpark. They won on an error in the 10th inning.
At that point, the Giants’ offense, which ranked last in the league in homers this season and had been shut out in Game 2 of the division series, looked fatally flawed. Since then, their hitters’ knack for putting the ball in play and taking their chances has seemed inspired.
The reality is probably somewhere in between, but with strong pitching, in the rotation and the bullpen, a team always has a chance. Add speedy outfielders and solid infielders, and the Giants have given themselves an even better chance.
It would seem odd, historically, if these Giants captured two titles while two of the greatest players in franchise history — Mathewson and Mays — claimed just one apiece. Other Giants icons — Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds — never won at all.
Maybe there is no lesson, no grand secret these Giants have uncovered. Maybe the baseball gods simply decided they were due for things to break right. Again. “There is no formula,” Francona said. “That’s why the game’s fun. You never know.”