As the San Francisco Giants make their push toward the postseason, they seem to have regained their early season form. That is, they have morphed back into the team that is reliant upon a dominant starting rotation and a resurgent bullpen to offset the lack of punch on offense. It couldn?t have come at a better time for a team that hasn?t reached the playoffs since 2003. Giants fans had to wonder what happened in the month of August that caused its once-thriving starting pitchers to fall flat on their face. Some might blame fatigue, but whatever the reason, the unit mailed in a robust 5.13 ERA for the month. If it was fatigue, then one would have to surmise that September can only be categorized as a second wind. With six games left in the season, Giants pitchers, starters and relievers, have put up an ERA so low that even if you doubled it, it would still rank third in the National League. Needless to say, they are leading all of Major League Baseball by posting a remarkable 1.84 ERA. While the hurlers might be the aspect of the team expected to perform day in and day out, it is the patchwork lineup that must score enough to support their stingy pitching staff. This is a unit that has been mercurial throughout the season, sometimes struggling to scrape together a run or two, other times putting together extended strings of offensive outbursts. Here is the Giants OPS by month: April: .768 May: .690 June: .730 July: .751 Aug: .739 Sept: .694 The Giants are obviously prone to long stretches of offensive ineptitude. What they are banking on is the continued success of the additions that they have made to the lineup along the way. Rarely does a team in contention throughout the season have as much turnover as the 2010 Giants. More than half of the starting lineup has changed since the beginning of the season. While he is currently easing his way back into the lineup after an absence caused by an appendectomy, Andres Torres has supplanted Aaron Rowand as the everyday center fielder. In the process, Torres has turned in one of the better seasons of any center fielder in the National League. Long gone are the days of Mark DeRosa patrolling left field, as Pat ?the Bat? Burrell has given the Giants a legitimate threat in the middle of the lineup. You wouldn?t think it was the same player that put up a slash line of .202/.292/.333 with the Tampa Bay Rays, up until they released him, that is. Since coming to the Giants, the San Francisco Bay Area native has turned his season around by producing a slash line of .261/.366/.504. To complete the triumvirate of new starting outfielders, Jose Guillen has replaced?well, any number of players that the Giants have trotted out throughout the season. While Guillen has not provided thump that Bruce Bochy had hoped for when the Giants acquired him, there is no doubt that he is a threat to go deep at any given moment. This is not something you could readily say about Nate Schierholtz, John Bowker, Eugenio Velez, et al. The most surprising change to the lineup is not one that is set in stone, but it has definitely been noticeable as of late, and that?s the absence of Pablo Sandoval. There has not been a player on the Giants that has had a more disappointing season than the Kung Fu Panda. Thought to be one of the up and coming young offensive stars in the NL after his breakout 2009 season, Sandoval is losing playing time with every GIDP he hits into (a statistic in which he leads the NL). Juan Uribe, who has played all over the infield this season, and his timely hitting have been starting more and more at the hot corner as of late. Mike Fontenot has even recently stolen some starts. Surely the biggest change, and biggest upgrade for that matter, has been the addition of rookie sensation Buster Posey. Posey has been nothing short of a godsend in the middle of the Giants order. Surely, the Giants would not be in a position to realistically challenge for a NL West title without their newfound catching prodigy. Posey has exceeded all expectations while replacing Bengie Molina behind the plate, having belted his way to an OPS of .882. The starting rotation has remained the same throughout the season with the exception of another rookie that has excelled in his first full season at the big league level. Madison Bumgarner replaced Todd Wellemeyer in the starting rotation in late June and hasn?t looked back. The Giants best pitching prospect since some guy named Tim Lincecum graced AT&T Park with his presence has not disappointed, pitching to the tune of a 3.06 ERA, a 3.16 strikeout to walk ratio and having pitched at least six innings in 12 of his 17 starts. The future looks extremely bright for the young starter from North Carolina who pitched the majority of this season at the ripe old age of 20. With as much churn as there has been in the field for San Francisco, the story has been quite the opposite on the pitcher?s mound. It has been no surprise who the Giants will be trotting out as their starter. Jonathan Sanchez will begin the second to last series of the regular season on Tuesday, and that is significant because it will mark the fourth starter that will accumulate 32 starts. Also, since Bumgarner has taken over as the fifth starter, the stability has extended throughout the entire rotation. Since June 26th, the Giants have started the same five starters day in and day out. This is the type of dependability major league managers dream about. With six games left in the season, San Francisco holds a one game lead in the NL West over the San Diego Padres. At a point in the season when reliable starting pitching reigns supreme, the Giants have it in spades. They also have a completely different look to their lineup than what they started with. They have three games remaining against Arizona, a team staring a 95 loss season square in the face, before a season-ending three game series against a Padre team that has been limping to the finish line. It is very likely that that series will decide the NL West champion. The schedule makers couldn?t have set it up better. It is also a conclusion that the entire baseball world will be watching.