MLB 2011: Despite Injuries, San Francisco Giants Continue to Find Ways to Win

The Giants injury report seems to grow every day.

Freddy Sanchez, Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Barry Zito, Mike Fontenot, Mark DeRosa, Brandon Belt and Darren Ford are hurting, and the list will probably grow.

San Francisco is 29th in Major League Baseball in runs scored, 26th in batting average and 24th in slugging.

Where are the Giants in the standings? First place in the NL West.

That doesn't seem possible, but it's true.

Despite the slow start from Aubrey Huff, the Giants are there. Even with the disaster that Miguel Tejada has been at the plate, the Giants are in the hunt.

The dominance of the pitching staff is well documented, but the most remarkable part about it has been the timely offensive production.

Do they hit well with runners in scoring position? No, they don't. Are they a great hitting team after the seventh inning? Not really.

But they have eight walk-off wins and have the very cliché never-say-die attitude.

The confidence from the World Series run has translated to a successful 2011 season and does not seem to be fading.

This is not just with the returning players from that team but also the young players that have come up and have given the Giants much-needed boosts.

Ford, Belt, Manny Burriss, Brandon Crawford and Ryan Vogelsong have shown to be steadying forces.

Vogelsong, who spent the past three years in Japan, has the best ERA on the starting staff.

Crawford has eight RBI in his week and a half in the big leagues plus a stellar glove at shortstop.

Burriss, after a couple of unsuccessful stints in the bigs the past couple years, now looks like a solid big league hitter and player.

Ford bothers pitchers like nobody in a Giants uniform since a young Barry Bonds.

What makes it even more amazing is when you look at the combined numbers of Sandoval, Sanchez and Posey.

The trio has combined to hit .291 with an OPS of .761.

The rest of the team is batting .225 with a .635 OPS.

The Giants get Sandoval back tonight and the team needs him to be the hitter he was before getting hurt. Despite not playing since late April, Pablo is still third on the team in home runs with five.

They start a three-game set with Arizona tonight.

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