I think people over play the 'pitching and defense' thing with SF. They actually hit really well. The Giants play in a park that suppresses offense. If you look at NL teams regular season batting on the road, SF has the most runs scored, the best BA, best OBP, and the best OPS. That's a good offensive team. They aren't a big HR team. But HRs doesn't always equate to good hitting. In SF, the Giants outhit their opponents in almost every major category - runs scored, OPS, BA, SLG, OPS. The only thing they trail in is HRs. Teams hit to a tune of .649 OPS in SF. This doesn't mean they don't have a top notch pitching staff, but I think people seriously underestimate the Giants hitters. http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/2012_NLCS.shtml#post_batting_winner::none I agree with you Reilly. They definitely had a good hitting year in the Regular Season. In the playoffs though, they have had some amazingly timely hitting. As a team in the NLDS against the Reds, they hit .194 and won. In the NLCS, the Giants had 3 of the 8 regulars (Scutaro, Sandoval & Belt) have really good series (.500, .310 & .304 respectively). The other 5 hit .242 and lower, with their #4 & #5 hitters (Posey and Pence) hitting .154 & .179. They just find a way to win. I know if I was a Cardinals fan, I'd be looking at our lineup and theirs and wonder how we scored 6, 7 & 8 in 3 of the first 4 games and 1 run in the final 3.