San Francisco Giants: A Look at the 2011 Season in Pictures

When you think of the San Francisco Giants, a lot of things come to mind. Beards. Hair. Torture. Rally thongs. Misfits. And, finally, champions.

Yep, that's right. Champions.

But that was last year. Now, we take a look at the 2011 year in pictures. All the ups, all the downs.

From Brian Wilson to Tim Lincecum. Aubrey Huff to Brandon Belt. Andres Torres to Mike Fontenot. Buster Posey to Ramon Ramirez. This is the Giants team, with hair (as shown above), facial hair and torture.

That's the Giants for you. 

March and April 2011

April was where the Giants had to prove themselves as champions. And in the first five games, we all thought it was a fluke. The Dodgers took three of four from San Francisco, and then San Diego took the opener from San Francisco. 

But the Giants got back on track. Back-to-back walk-off hits by Aaron Rowand and Miguel Tejada in the first two games of the year in San Francisco got the team back on track. Mike Fontenot had a big home run, and Brandon Belt had some big moments. 

Brian Wilson missed the first week of the season, and blew his first save opportunity (although San Francisco would win the game), but he returned to his 2010 form. 

San Francisco would lose four in a row and get swept by Atlanta, but they would return. Freddy Sanchez scored Darren Ford with an RBI groundout and the Giants took Game 1 from Pittsburgh. 

After March and April, the Giants were 13-13.

May 2011

Ryan Vogelsong and the Giants got through May with ups and downs. On the down side, Buster Posey was injured. On the upside, well, Ryan Vogelsong dominated.

Mike Fontenot did well in May, and he even batted third, ahead of Posey, Huff and Pat Burrell. But on May 25, he sustained a groin injury, and he didn't return for a month-and-a-half.

But May 25 is known for much more than Fontenot's injury. Buster Posey went down for the season in a home-plate collision with Florida Marlins rookie Scott Cousins, and the Giants have suffered.

Still, May was better than April (excluding injuries). Vogelsong went 2-1 in the month and pitched very well, Madison Bumgarner finally got a win—and some run support—and new shortstop Brandon Crawford hit a grand slam in a 5-4 win over Milwaukee.

The Giants went 16-12 in May and ended the month 29-25.

June 2011

June had many ups and many downs. Among the downs was being swept by Oakland, and among the ups was Aubrey Huff's three-homer game and Madison Bumgarner's bounce-back month.

On June 2, Huff had three homers and six RBI in a 12-7 win over St. Louis. On June 6, San Francisco rallied from down four runs to beat Washington on a walk-off by Freddy Sanchez. Nate Schierholtz had a walk-off on June 10.

But June 10 was also the day Sanchez went down, and he is out for the season. The Giants picked up Bill Hall in June, but he ended up being a big bust.

The Giants had a seven-game win streak in late June, and they won one game 1-0 on an RBI balk. San Francisco is still Team Torture, and they are finding more unique ways to win games.

The Giants went 17-11 in June and ended the month in first, with a record of 46-36.

July 2011

July brought more Panda to San Francisco, and more torture. San Francisco had five players selected to the All-Star Game, among them the Panda and Ryan Vogelsong. Even though Pablo was out for a month-and-a-half with an injury, his performance was good enough, and he hit an RBI double in the game.

The Giants kept finding more ways to win. Chris Stewart knocked in the eventual game-winning run with a suicide squeeze in the top of the 11th against San Diego on July 17th, then he started a huge double-play to save the game for the Giants.

Pablo kept hitting the ball well throughout the month, and so did Nate Schierholtz, who hit a walk-off homer July 6th against San Diego. Brian Wilson and Tim Lincecum kept pitching well, and the Giants kept going strong.

The Giants offense hasn't been that strong, but on July 2, they poured 15 runs on Max Schrezer and Detroit. Brandon Crawford, Miguel Tejada and Sandoval went deep, and Barry Zito pitched six shutout innings.

The Giants went 15-11 in July and ended the month two games ahead of Arizona and at 61-47.

August 2011

Carlos Beltran, Orlando Cabrera and Jeff Keppinger were deadline acquisitions for San Francisco, in an attempt to get more offense. It hasn't worked so far.

The Giants have gone 3-7 in August and are now a game out of first place. Jonathan Sanchez returned from the DL on August 5th and lost his first two starts, giving up five runs and going fewer than five innings both times.

San Francisco scored eight runs on Jason Marquis on August 3rd, beating Arizona 8-1. Orlando Cabrera had three RBI and Carlos Beltran had two runs and an RBI, but they couldn't carry that momentum over. 

Tim Lincecum did beat Roy Oswalt on August 7th, as Keppinger, Cabrera and Chris Stewart knocked in runs, and Stewart hit his first career home run in an August 9th win, but that was all the ups for San Francisco. So far, August has been tough for the Giants.

Now, they head into a 10-game road trip, as Florida, Atlanta and Houston await, hungry for success.