Starting Pitching and Closer Carry Giants to World Series Championship

The San Francisco Giants Opening Day Lineup featured Mark DeRosa at left field, Aaron Rowand at center field, John Bowker at right field, Pablo Sandoval at third base, Edgar Renteria at shortstop, Juan Uribe at second base, Aubrey Huff at first base, and Bengie Molina at catcher. Out of those eight position players, only two (Uribe and Huff) started the majority of the postseason games for Giants in 2010.

Three of those players (Bowker, DeRosa, and Molina) were no longer with the team during the postseason, and Rowand, Renteria, and Sandoval, all lost their starting jobs during the season due to poor play. Although Renteria did deliver for the Giants in the postseason when it mattered, he was largely a nonfactor for the majority of the season.

Point of the matter is this: the Giants could have used really anyone on the field with the legendary pitching rotation that they had. Sure, GM Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy made some shrewd moves in acquiring outfielders Pat Burrell and Cody Ross and inserting Andres Torres and Buster Posey into the lineup during the middle of the season. Also, Posey made a strong case for Rookie of the Year with his spectacular all-around play over the final three months of the season.

However, people cannot seem to forget that the offense and defense as a whole was not very good throughout the season and postseason. The team had slow, below-average fielders in Huff and Burrell and scored three runs or fewer in over half of their regular season and postseason games. Otherwise, why would Sabean and Bochy make so many drastic changes to the starting lineup multiple times throughout the course of the season? Want to take about team chemistry? How could a team of self-proclaimed “misfits” really get a feel for each other if half of the starting lineup was not even with the team at the beginning of the season? It takes months, often multiple seasons, for a group of players to really develop strong relationships with each other, so the chemistry within the clubhouse has been drastically overblown by the public. After all, these position players barely know each other, having spent a season or less with each other.

Even the bullpen was in major flux for the majority of the season. At the beginning of the season, pitchers Guillermo Mota, Denny Bautista, and Jeremy Affeldt were primary set-up men for closer Brian Wilson. However, all three pitchers floundered this season and lost their roles midway through the season. By the end of the season, newcomers Javier Lopez and Ramon Ramirez played significant roles in the bullpen, while unknown Santiago Casilla established himself as a force. Outside of Wilson, Sergio Romo was the lone bullpen pitcher to play a key role in the postseason for the Giants, and even he nearly cost the Giants in the NLDS against the Braves, after surrendering late go-ahead hits to the Braves in Games 2 and 3.

The only constants for the Giants this season has been their legendary starting pitching and the clutch play of closer Brian Wilson all season and postseason. Playing behind a subpar offense and defense every night, every pitcher on the Giants had enormous pressure to prevent the opponents from scoring each and every game. The starting pitchers were up to the task right from opening night, when Tim Lincecum shut out the Houston Astros 3-0, all the way until the World Series, when Matt Cain and Madison Bumgarner each shut out the Rangers once in the series.

Overall, the Giants’ starters had an ERA of 3.54 this season, which ranked 3rd in the MLB, and had a Major League-best 2.26 ERA in the final 30 days in the regular season. To put that into perspective, the next-best starting pitching ERA during the final 30 days of the season was 2.75 by the Philadelphia Phillies, who had high-profile pitchers Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels anchoring the rotation. The Giants had nearly a 0.50 better earned run differential than the Phillies. Also, Giants starters led the major leagues in strikeouts with 888, 31 better than the next closest competitor. Strikeouts are a strong representation of a pitcher’s performance, since this stat does not rely on defense to make plays.

Excluding Barry Zito, who was not part of the Giants postseason roster, every other Giants starter had under a 3.50 ERA this season. Playing behind the fourth-worst fielding team in the Major Leagues and a 17th-ranked offense, the Giants needed every quality start they could get to reach the playoffs. Despite the subpar offense and fielding, they managed to squeak by the Padres in the final game of the regular season to reach the postseason.

Once they reached the postseason, the Giants starters absolutely carried the team into the World Series. Against Atlanta, each of the four starters pitched at least 6 innings and allowed no more than two earned runs. Cain and Lincecum each did not allow an earned run while Sanchez only allowed one run, which really should have been charged to Sergio Romo, who allowed a home run to Eric Hinske after Sanchez walked a batter. While Sanchez struggled the remainder of the postseason, Bumgarner, Cain, and Lincecum delivered in the NLCS and World Series. Cain did not allow a SINGLE EARNED RUN throughout the postseason his three starts, Bumgarner pitched a shutout against Texas, and Lincecum closed the deal with an exceptional 8 inning, one run, performance against Texas in the final game of the World Series. Pitching against Halladay and Lee twice each in the NLCS and World Series, Lincecum won three of those starts and set the tone with Game 1 wins over Philadelphia and Texas.

While the starting pitching was great, Wilson was equally exceptional in the back end of the bullpen. Wilson led the MLB in saves in the regular season with 48 and had a 1.81 ERA in 70 appearances. He pitched in countless high-pressure situations in the regular season and was the one bullpen pitcher that Bochy trusted on a regular basis. In the postseason, Wilson was even better, posting 16 strikeouts, allowing no earned runs, and pitching 11.2 innings of shutout baseball in 10 appearances. With the starters going deep into most of the postseason games, Wilson pitched in nearly as many innings as every other bullpen pitcher on the staff combined and recorded six critical saves for the Giants.

As the old adage goes in baseball, “great pitching beats great hitting.” The Giants proved this statement throughout the season and especially the postseason, when the Phillies and Rangers, two explosive offenses, struggled to manufacture runs against the Giants pitching staff. San Francisco shut out the Phillies and Rangers a combined three times in two convincing series victories. Overall, San Francisco’s starting pitching and Wilson’s brilliant closing more than made up for the lackluster offense and defense and propelled the Giants to their first championship in 56 years.