The anatomy of the San Francisco Giants’ three World Series titles in five years

San Francisco Giants plug right players into the right spots without breaking the bank, writes Paul Oberjuerge.

The San Francisco Giants celebrate after their decisive Game 7 win in the World Series against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday. AP Photo/Charlie Riedel

It wasn’t always this easy for the San Francisco Giants. Three World Series championships in five seasons? They had gone the previous 55 years without even one.

Now, it seems as if they have hit upon the formula for succeeding in the modern age, an approach to the game that was invalid even 10 years ago.

Hit a little. Catch the ball. Buy or develop an ace pitcher. Shorten the game by investing in a trio of overpowering relief pitchers for the final three innings. Pitchers for “high-leverage” situations matter; hitters do not, unless one of them is an elite catcher.

And then make sure you have enough competent players to get to the play-offs in the first place.

Major League Baseball is in an interesting period. Championship teams now must be prepared to compete in what are four distinct periods inside the seven months from opening day to final out.

From April through July, teams need to win more than they lose. Spending enormous amounts of money? Not necessary. Six teams outspent the Giants; 18 outspent their World Series opponents, the Kansas City Royals.

In late July, management decides if their team has a chance at the play-offs, which drives decision-making ahead of the July 31 trade deadline. The Giants thought they could make it, but they needed another starting pitcher. They gave up two promising youngsters for free-agent-to-be starter Jake Peavy, who plugged the hole left by the broken-down ace Matt Cain, a key figure in the 2012 championship. Peavy was good enough – the Giants were 8-4 in his 12 starts – that a wild-card berth was secured.

In September, rosters expand from 25 to 40 players, and the clever teams take advantage of a chance to stock up on specialists. Some teams begin using eight pitchers per game. The Royals promoted a kid, Terrance Gore, who did little more than steal bases, many at crucial moments. A designated runner to add to their designated hitters, as they made their push to the World Series with their own take on the new order.

And then the play-offs, which the Giants have owned three times in five years. Having gained the post-season in 2010, 2012 and 2014, not once with the best record in the National League (and the fifth-best this season), their made-for-the-play-offs team took it the rest of the way without a transcendent hitter in any of those years and with a ragged back end to their starting rotation each time.

These Giants won the World Series with only one elite starting pitcher, Madison Bumgarner, but he was overpowering in October. He was poison to the Royals, yielding one run in 21 innings versus KC. He won Games 1 and 5 and got a save in Game 7 with five innings of scoreless relief. He appeared in three of their four victories. The fourth was when they scored 11 runs, in Game 4, overcoming Brian Vogelsong’s poor pitching performance.

In many ways, the team the Giants vanquished followed the template set by Brian Sabean, the Giants general manager. They were an excellent defensive team, who ran well and hit just enough, with a standout reliever-relay for the late innings. They, too, made the play-offs as a wild card. They, too, had one very strong starting pitcher, Yordano Ventura, who got them to Game 7 with seven shutout innings in Game 6. However, Bumgarner was available to throw in relief the next day; Ventura was not.

It is telling that of the 25 Giants who won the World Series on Wednesday night, only two position players (Buster Posey, their elite catcher, and Pablo Sandoval) were around for all three championships. Six Giants pitchers, however, won rings in 2010, 2012 and 2014.

The Giants’ three championships were about identifying their best pitchers and using them in critical moments. That is the essential ingredient in the final step of what has become a four-stage baseball season.

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