Giants Road to the Championship

Giants Road to the Championship

May 29, 2010

The Giants' 12-1 drubbing of Atlanta on May 29 will best be remembered for a 3-for-4 effort from Buster Posey in his highly-anticipated major league debut. The hits would keep on coming from the youngster, as he finished the season with a .305 average, 18 home runs and 67 RBIs, generating plenty of Rookie of the Year hype.

June 12, 2010

Facing off against cross-Bay rival Oakland, San Francisco was in danger of blowing a 5-1 lead when Brian Wilson entered the game in the bottom of the eighth. The score had been sliced to 5-4 earlier in the inning, and he inherited a bases loaded jam with only one out. He remained unfazed, striking out Adam Rosales and inducing a ground out from Rajai Davis to preserve the Giants' lead. After tossing a scoreless ninth, San Francisco escaped with a narrow win. Wilson was clutch for the Giants all season, notching an MLB-leading 48 saves.

July 15 and 16, 2010

Driven by their tremendous pitching all season -- they posted an MLB low 3.36 team ERA -- the Giants best back-to-back performances came on July 15 and 16 against the New York Mets. Tim Lincecum, Barry Zito and Brian Wilson (inset) combined for 18 scoreless innings, leading the team to consecutive 2-0 and 1-0 victories. The games can be seen as a microcosm of San Francisco's entire season, as they became known for winning, close low-scoring contests that were dubbed "torture" by team broadcaster Duane Kuiper.

August 12, 2010

After racing to a 7-3 lead behind a pair of homers from Pat Burrell, the Giants seemed primed to coast to an easy win over the Cubs on Aug. 12. That's before the bullpen surrendered four runs in the seventh and eighth, allowing Chicago to tie the game entering the ninth. San Francisco prevailed behind Andres Torres, who hit a pinch-hit, walk-off, RBI single over center fielder Marlon Byrd for an 8-7 win. Torres was a revelation this season, hitting .268 with 26 stolen bases as the sparkplug atop the Giants' lineup.

August 14, 2010

Just two days after they defeated the Cubs in walk-off fashion, the Giants repeated the act during an Aug. 14 showdown with the San Diego Padres. Juan Uribe smacked an offering from Tim Stauffer into short right field and Buster Posey dashed home with the winning run as the Giants emerged with a 3-2 victory. It was a crucial win for San Francisco, as it came immediately before a three-game losing streak that dropped them six games behind San Diego in the NL West.

August 23, 2010

Seemingly insignificant at the time, the Giants claimed outfielder Cody Ross off waivers from the Florida Marlins on Aug. 23. A journeyman throughout his six-year career, Ross was a force during the NLCS, hitting .350 with 3 home runs to earn series MVP honors. Ross joined the likes of Javier Lopez, Ramon Ramirez, Mike Fontenot and Jose Guillen as key additions during the 2010 season.

September 4, 2010

Trailing 4-0 early in Los Angeles, San Francisco rallied behind four late home runs to beat the rivals Dodgers on Sept. 4. (Clockwise from top left) Buster Posey, Edgar Renteria and Pat Burrell all cranked solo homers before Juan Uribe launched a two-run blast off Dodgers' closer Jonathan Broxton in the top of the ninth to give the Giants a 5-4 lead and, eventually, the win.

October 3, 2010

The race between the Giants and the Padres was tight throughout the season's final month. From September 4 on, the teams were never separated by more than two games, save for one day in the last week of the season. San Francisco won three of four in San Diego from Sept. 9-12 to tie for first, and took a three-game lead into the season's final series against the Padres at AT&T Park. The Padres won the first two games, but in the season finale, Jonathan Sanchez and five relievers combined on a four-hit shutout that clinched the Giants' first division title since 2003.

October 7, 2010

In his first postseason start in his prodigious three-year career, Tim Lincecum was nothing short of masterful in Game 1 of the NLDS. The Freak struck out 14 Braves -- a San Francisco playoff record -- while tossing a complete game, 1-0 shutout. The Giants went on to eliminate Atlanta in four classic games.

October 23, 2010

Heavy underdogs entering the NLCS, the Giants knocked off the two-time defending NL-champion Phillies behind effective pitching and timely hitting. This was never truer than in Game 6, when the Giants' bullpen pitched seven scoreless innings while Juan Uribe drove an opposite-field homer off Philadelphia reliever Ryan Madson, who had been dominant in the series to that point, to give San Francisco a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth. With two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth, Brian Wilson froze Ryan Howard with a 3-2 slider to end the game and send the Giants to the World Series for the first time since 2002.

November 1, 2010

Pitching, pitching and more pitching. That was the secret to the Giants' first World Series championship since moving to San Francisco in 1958. The Rangers were supposed to have the edge on offense, but after Game 1 -- an 11-7 loss -- the Texas bats never got going. Only four teams scored more runs than the Rangers during the season, but the Giants shut them out twice, then clinched the Series when Tim Lincecum and Brian Wilson combined on a three-hit, 3-1 victory in Game 5. Edgar Renteria was named the Series MVP after hitting .412 (7 for 17) with six RBIs, including a game-winning three-run homer in the finale.