Ten things we'll never forget from Giants' 2010 title run

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Alex Pavlovic gives you ten things we'll never forget from the Giants' 2010 World Series run.

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1/11

There isn't an organization out there that does nostalgia better than the Giants, and at all levels, they were ready for what 2020 originally meant. 

This was to be the 10-year anniversary of the first World Series title since the franchise switched coasts, and the Giants were going to go all-out this summer to celebrate the Core Four, that dominant rotation, the rookie catcher and all of those veterans who put it together at the perfect time. 

Instead, Bruce Bochy and his #ForeverGiants were represented at Oracle Park by cardboard cutouts. 

The Giants hope to have an opportunity to celebrate the 2010 team next season, and to do so in front of fans. As we wait for that magical day, here's a look back at the run to a title, and 10 things about that month we'll never forget ...

2/11

The 2019-20 Giants have been built in part on finding struggling or overlooked players and giving them a chance, the Mike Yastrzemskis, Alex Dickersons, Drew Smylys and Donovan Solanos of the world. But this is nothing new for the Giants. 

That 2010 team, the Band of Misfits, had some incredible rejuvenation stories. Pat Burrell hit .202 in Tampa Bay with two homers in 84 at-bats, then hit .264 for the Giants with 18 homers in 289 at-bats while providing clubhouse leadership. Cody Ross raised his OPS by nearly 100 points after coming over from the Marlins.

Javier Lopez cut his ERA and WHIP in half and dramatically raised his strikeout rate after getting traded over from Pittsburgh. Ramon Ramirez, an underrated member of that club, had a 4.46 ERA in Boston but gave up two earned runs in 27 innings for the Giants. Santiago Casilla and Aubrey Huff came over before the season and turned their careers around.

3/11

The list of players who will never have to buy a drink in San Francisco got longer by the even year, but you probably would have to dig pretty deep to get to the one who actually was the World Series MVP the first time around. Edgar Renteria isn't as remembered around here as Ross or Travis Ishikawa, but he was crucial against the Rangers. 

Renteria, who struggled with injuries during the regular season, took over at shortstop in the NLCS and broke a scoreless tie with a homer in Game 2 of the World Series. He then won the series in Game 5 with a stunning shot off Cliff Lee in the seventh inning. Renteria, Pablo Sandoval and Madison Bumgarner are the only World Series MVPs in San Francisco Giants history.

Don't forget about the guy who did it first! 

4/11

As good as the Giants' rotation was, the Philadelphia Phillies had the best starter in the NLCS in the late Roy Halladay, a Hall-of-Famer who won the Cy Young Award and pitched a no-hitter in the NLDS. But Ross, a waiver claim, took the mystique away with a pair of homers in Game 1, a 4-3 Giants win. Ross went 3-for-16 off Halladay in their regular-season matchups, and he tried everything to figure out a better approach. 

"He had my number," Ross said recently. "I'm in the series and I'm like, you know what, I've tried everything against this guy and nothing has worked. Why am I trying to go away from what I try to do every time I go to the plate, which is hit a homer? I was like, screw it, I'm just going to try and hit a homer. Sure enough, I get up and 'bam, homer ... oh that worked.' Second time I come around and I'm like I'm going to try it again. 'Bam!' Forget trying to hit the ball the other way or staying up the middle."

Ross said Halladay is the best pitcher he ever faced, but on that night, he had the edge. 

5/11

Dick Tidrow knew Madison Bumgarner was wired differently when he made a scouting trip to Hudson, North Carolina and watched the lanky teenager repeatedly throw inside on right-handed hitters. Matt Cain knew it as he watched Bumgarner, 19 at the time, attack Manny Ramirez with 96 mph fastballs in on the hands during a spring training game. The rest of the baseball world figured it out on Halloween of 2010.

Bumgarner, two months past his 21st birthday, sauntered into the Ballpark in Arlington and threw eight shutout innings in his first World Series start. He allowed just three hits and didn't let a runner past first until the seventh inning. 

"Just tried to go out there and relax," Bumgarner said that night. "And it's worked out." 

Bumgarner will be remembered for 2014, but his first World Series start was just as dominant, and a sign of what was to come for the best postseason pitcher of his generation. 

6/11

One of the strangest parts of Tim Lincecum's career is that he actually made more postseason relief appearances than starts. Lincecum's star was fading by the time the Giants got to the 2012 playoffs, but he was still at the peak of his powers in 2010, and he has never been better than he was in Game 1 of the NLDS. 

Giants fans will never forget that 14-strikeout shutout of the Atlanta Braves, but that game is still underrated historically. In the history of the game, do you know how many pitchers have thrown a postseason shutout with at least 14 strikeouts? Just six. How many have done it with fewer than three hits allowed? Two, Lincecum and Roger Clemens. Lincecum put up the second-highest game score (96) in MLB postseason history that night. 

The performance is well-known, but it doesn't get enough consideration as one of the greatest games ever pitched, and it's something that likely will never be topped. In the decade since that night, no MLB pitcher has thrown a postseason shutout with more than 11 strikeouts.

7/11

The Giants seemingly were underdogs every time they started a series under Bochy, but that especially was true in 2010. They snuck in on the final weekend, and after beating the Braves, they faced a Phillies team that had the look of a dynasty. The Phillies had reached the World Series in back-to-back years, winning it all in 2008, and they had a 97-win team powered by Halladay, Cole Hamels, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and more. The Giants beat them in six and then beat the Texas Rangers in five.

It certainly didn't feel like it at the time, but looking back a decade later, that was perhaps the easiest of the three title runs. There was no Wild Card Game to get through, no comeback from a 3-1 deficit, no Game 7 drama. The Giants marched to a title, going 11-4. The 2010 team played a lot of one-run games and introduced #torture, but the next two title winners had their backs against the wall a bit more.

8/11

There was a misconception when Farhan Zaidi was hired to be Bochy's boss in 2019, with a lot of people framing it as New School vs. Old School. But Bochy was managing in a very 2020 way in crucial games a decade ago. 

The best example is Game 6 of the NLCS, when Bochy pulled out all the stops to make sure there was no tomorrow. When Jonathan Sanchez lost his command at the start of the third, Bochy pulled the plug and called for Jeremy Affeldt. He was followed by Bumgarner, the Game 4 starter, for two relief innings. Lincecum, who had started Game 5, came out of the bullpen to face three batters in the eighth. 

Using three starters in a non-elimination game would have fit right in during the 2020 postseason. A decade ago, Bochy was going against the grain.

9/11

Anytime an apparent home run hits the padding at the very top of the wall and stays in the park, hundreds of Giants fans yell the same thing at their TV: "Kinsler!" There were a lot of bounces that went the Giants' way over three title runs, including a would-be homer that ended up being a harmless double in Game 2 of the World Series. 

In the fifth inning, Kinsler blasted a Matt Cain fastball to dead center. It looked like it would smack a tree behind the wall, but hit the top and bounced back to Andres Torres. As Kinsler stopped on second, he yelled a four-letter expletive that the broadcast picked up. "Hard to believe that a ball would hit like that and come backwards," Joe Buck said on the broadcast. 

With another inch of carry, the Rangers have a 1-0 lead. Instead, Cain stranded Kinsler and Edgar Renteria gave the Giants the lead with a solo homer in the bottom of the inning. A close game turned into a 9-0 blowout in the eighth.

10/11

There are a couple of events during those runs that would have been talked about much differently in the social media era. Melky Cabrera slipped out of Oracle Park after his suspension in 2012 and wasn't seen again until the following spring. Two years earlier, Jose Guillen left the team under even stranger circumstances. 

Acquired in mid-August, Guillen played 42 games down the stretch, and while he didn't hit much, he was the team's primary right fielder. Guillen started two of the three crucial final-weekend games with the Padres, but he was a surprise omission from the postseason roster, with the Giants claiming he had a neck injury. During the World Series, the New York Times reported that federal authorities were investigating shipments of human growth hormone that had been sent to Guillen's wife, and that the Giants had been directed to keep Guillen off the roster by the commissioner's office.

Guillen was slumping in September, so perhaps Ross still would have gotten his chance to be the October hero. We'll never know. What we do know is that the Giants narrowly avoided serious embarrassment.

11/11

If you go back and watch the benches-clearing incident in Game 6 of the NLCS, you'll see Bumgarner -- of course -- leading the Giants who came running in from the bullpen. You'll see Guillermo Mota and Ramon Ramirez, and more than 50 other players and coaches gathering in your classic baseball shovefest. What you won't see is Affeldt. 

After Sanchez walked the leadoff batter in the third, Affeldt and Ramirez were told to warm up. Affeldt knew he might be going in to face Howard, but he only had made two or three light throws when Sanchez drilled Utley. Affeldt's first reaction was to join as the benches cleared, but bullpen coach Mark Gardner saved the day. 

"I start to run out there and Gardy grabbed me and said, 'Hey, you can't go down there, you're in the game,'" Affeldt said recently. "We just took advantage of the situation, knowing that the fight, by the time it got spooled up and spooled down, it was probably going to be five or six minutes."

Affeldt got about 20 warm-up pitches in as 46,000 fans booed Sanchez. He entered and struck out Howard before getting two more outs to stand the runners. 

"Going in cold right there probably wouldn't have ended up the same way," Affeldt said. "I'm glad Gardy stopped me on that."

The Giants won the game 3-2 and avoided a Game 7. Eight days later, they were champions.

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