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Mark Townsend

Giants transforming into offensive juggernaut before our eyes?

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Some Giants fans I follow on Twitter were irritated when Joe Buck opened the Fox game broadcast on Thursday night by "discrediting" their Game 1 offensive performance in order to drive home the point that the Giants are baseball's best pitching team.

I really didn't perceive Buck's comments as a dig as much as I thought he was delivering accurate information, but I guess Giants fans would have a right to be angry if Buck opens Game 3 with a similar statement.

It's time we forget everything we thought we knew about the 2010 San Francisco Giants, because those thoughts don't seem to be relevant anymore.

This isn't the same team that tortured their fans right up until the final day of the regular season. This isn't the same team we saw in the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves. Or maybe even in the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies.

This team has been better the first two games of the World Series. More well rounded. Now it's not just a team with championship caliber pitching, it's a championship team that hasn't shown any flaws. In the here and the now, which is all that counts, the Giants are an explosive baseball team. They've outscored the Texas Rangers 20-7 over the first two games.

And the confidence keeps growing with each inning and at-bat.

A turning point may have come at the end of the series in Atlanta, when Cody Ross(notes) caught fire and literally finished off the Braves all by himself in Game 4. But I think it was more likely Ross's performance against Roy Halladay(notes) and the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the NLCS.

His two solo home runs in that game sent shock-waves through Major League Baseball, but more importantly, it instantly instilled a palpable confidence in the Giants dugout. Instead of wondering how they were going to score against Halladay and the rest of the Phillies staff, they went to the plate knowing the big swing was going to come. It was only a matter of time and patience.

That belief relaxed everyone wearing a Giants uniform, including and especially the men with the golden arms.

Now they're in the World Series, and that confidence has spread like wildfire. Everyone wants in on the fun. They're all approaching every at-bat the same way, nobody is giving anything away, and that especially holds true with two outs.

Stat of the night: All seven of San Francisco's eigth inning runs in Game 2 came with two outs. I know there's a lot of second guessing going in the direction of Ron Washington for the use of his bullpen, especially in that inning, but credit to the Giants for their patience and focus. There isn't a whole that can be done once their engine gets revved up, and by the time that inning was over, they were clicking on all cylinders.

We'll see if it continues in Saturday's Game 3.

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