Offense now leads the way

An oft-overlooked offense has become the most explosive in baseball in recent days, and it has been the catalyst for a revival of a franchise that was in a fast fade in the postseason battle in mid-August, but woke up Wednesday not only leading the National League Wild Card race, but sitting only two games back of the NL West-leading Dodgers.

“We’ve been a tale of two teams,” said manager Bruce Bochy after a 12-7 comeback win on Tuesday night at Coors Field that saw the Giants score 11 unanswered runs in the final four innings.

A Giants team that dominated the NL West early in the season had fallen into a 21-37 funk that saw it turn a 10-game lead on June 8 into a five-game deficit to the Dodgers by Aug.

Those numbers explain why the Giants have been able take a 3 1/2-game lead on Milwaukee, four games on Atlanta and a 5 1/2-game lead on Pittsburgh in the battle for the two NL Wild Card spots despite a rotation that ranks ninth in the NL the last 17 days with a 3.73 ERA.

Nineteen of their 37 losses during that skid, in fact, came in games that the starting pitcher worked at least six innings and with three earned runs or fewer allowed, including 11 games in which the starting pitcher allowed two or fewer runs.

16, the best in the NL, with 18 RBIs and six home runs, tied with the Cubs’ Luis Valbuena for the most in the NL in those 17 days.

Susac went 2-for-5 with three RBIs and a home run on Tuesday, giving him 13 hits, three home runs and 14 RBIs his last nine starts, allowing Posey to get a few more starts than normal at first base.

Don’t overlook the fact that nine of the last 17 games were played at AT&T Park, where the Giants scored 55 runs and went 8-1 after having gone 30-32 at home to open the season.