In Giant Spot, Renteria Clutch Again

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants are often maligned for putting too much emphasis on the back of the baseball card, counting on players to repeat the past.

For relying on players like 34-year-old Edgar Renteria, who has two sore shoulders and an elbow that needs surgery in the offseason. Renteria is clearly past his prime.

That said, Renteria will always be a part of a very select club. Renteria is one of just five players to have a walk-off hit to win Game 7 of the World Series. He did it with the 1997 Marlins. A dozen years later, Renteria is still a guy his teammates like to see at the plate in a clutch situation.

For moments like Sunday.

Renteria's seventh-inning grand slam erased a three-run deficit in the Giants' 9-5 victory over the Rockies, completing the series sweep and pulling San Francisco even with Colorado atop the National League wild-card race.

"He's such a pro," manager Bruce Bochy said. "He's the guy you want up there with the game on the line. He came through big time for us today."

The Giants trailed the Rockies 5-2 in the seventh. They were staring at a loss that would have dropped them two games back in the wild-card race. With the bases loaded, though, Renteria came to the plate.

"There are not too many guys I'd rather have up at the plate in a clutch situation than him," Aaron Rowand said.

Randy Winn said that Renteria "came here with that reputation. He's a guy who plays hard every day and has consistently good at-bats. You notice it more in situations where there are runners in scoring position. It seems like there have been quite a few times this year he's come up with some really big hits for us."

None bigger than this one.

With the count 1-0, Renteria yanked a pitch from Rafael Betancourt over the left-field fence, just inside the pole. It was just his fourth homer of the year.

Even with three hits on Sunday, Renteria is hitting .264, well below his career average of .288. He is hitting .328 this year with two outs and runners in scoring position, though.

"I don't know why I'm always in that situation," he said, "but thank God I've had some success. Maybe it's because I don't try to do too much. I just try to find a good pitch to hit."

Maybe it's because he's got the ultimate clutch hit on his resume, and the confidence from that goes a long way.

"At that moment I was a rookie," Renteria said of the '97 World Series. "I didn't even know what I was doing."

Back then he had his whole career in front of him. Now, it's winding down. He's trying to milk whatever he can out of this playoff run with the Giants. Although the Giants have plenty of issues, one thing they don't lack is experience. Renteria is one of four players on the 25-man roster who has won a World Series. (Juan Uribe, Bengie Molina and Rowand are the others.)

Molina provided the big hit earlier in the week, a pinch-hit two-run homer that gave the Giants a victory over the Diamondbacks on Wednesday. All told, the Giants won five of six games on a home stand that immediately followed Monday's gut-wrenching loss at Colorado.

That 14-inning nightmare dropped them four games out. Since then, the Rockies have lost five of six. The Giants are smart enough to know that, just as Monday's loss didn't kill them, Sunday's victory didn't win them anything.

There are 31 games to play, and for the Giants that starts with a six-game trip to Philadelphia and Milwaukee. The Giants have lost 10 of their last 13 in Philadelphia and 15 of their last 20 in Milwaukee. The Rockies, meanwhile, return to Coors Field for a 10-game home stand against the Mets, Diamondbacks and Reds.

In other words, this show is not over. It's just beginning.

"We had a rough series against them [in Colorado] and we came back and played well," Winn said. "Those are all positive encouraging signs, but what does it mean for the big picture? We'll see."