When the Giants and the Colorado Rockies took the field at AT&TPark this past weekend for a three-game series, each team'sshortstop was penciled into the heart of the order.
The similarities between Mike Fontenot and Troy Tulowitzki endthere.
Tulowitzki is a 6-foot-3, 215-pound slugger with a rocket arm anda $157 million contract in his back pocket.
Fontenot? He is listed at 5-8, 165 pounds, and has never reacheddouble-digit homers in a season. Until last season, Fontenot hadnever even played more than four games in a season at shortstop.
Yet he has been the spark plug for a Giants team that pulledwithin a game of first-place Colorado in the National League Westafter a three-game sweep. The Giants are 5-1 since manager BruceBochy's surprise move to install Fontenot as his latest No. 3hitter.
"What a great job he's done," Bochy said. "He continues to findways to get on base and drive the ball. I just liked the way he wasswinging the bat.
"Mike was swinging as well as anybody."
Fontenot, 30, has been primarily a second baseman during hismajor league career, but he moved into the starting lineup atshortstop when Pablo Sandoval went on the disabled list and MiguelTejada was moved to third base.
Since then, Fontenot has started all nine games at short, batting.300 with four doubles, a homer and five RBIs. He clinched thevictory Saturday with a ninth-inning sacrifice fly, his first careergame-winning RBI.
"That's one thing that's funny about baseball -- you never know,"Fontenot said. "You don't want injuries to happen, but it's happenedto us and I've had a chance. I'm trying to make the most of it."
Fontenot said he is just happy to be back in the everyday lineupand isn't concerned about when his reign as a middle-of-the-orderhitter might end. Whenever it does, it will become the latestinteresting footnote in a career littered with them.
Fontenot has just 24 major league home runs, but he was known asa slugger at LSU. After setting a school freshman record with 17homers and hitting 14 as a sophomore, he was selected in the firstround of the 2001 draft by the Baltimore Orioles. But four yearslater, Baltimore sent him and two other players to Chicago for amuch-better-known slugger, Sammy Sosa.
"I thought that was pretty cool, and something you can alwaystell your grandkids," Fontenot said. "I was part of a trade for aguy with all those 60-homer years."
Acquired by the Giants last August for minor league outfielderEvan Crawford, Fontenot now has a more historic story to tell hisgrandkids. He made four postseason starts against Atlanta andPhiladelphia, and then pulled off a rare feat, appearing in theWorld Series without ever actually playing.
Fontenot was called upon to pinch hit late in Game 2, but whenthe Texas Rangers brought in a left-handed reliever, Bochy replacedthe left-handed-hitting Fontenot with right-hander Aaron Rowand.Fontenot's name wasn't called again as the Giants rolled to thetitle, but he already has his World Series story straight in casefuture Fontenots ask.
"I'll always tell my grandkids to just not look on the Internet,because I had one at-bat and I crushed the ball," he said, laughing."That experience is something you can never take away. I have thering and the pictures to prove it."
The Giants and Fontenot reached a one-year deal in December,avoiding arbitration. The move provided insurance for a left side ofthe infield full of offseason question marks because of thedepartures of Juan Uribe and Edgar Renteria and because ofSandoval's poor 2010 season.
"We wanted a strong veteran option there," general manager BrianSabean said. "He's been an everyday player, and we knew if somebodyfaltered he would be able to help out."
Not many could have imagined Fontenot helping out in the heart ofthe order, but inside the Giants clubhouse, Fontenot's contributionsare no surprise.
"The most important thing is we've needed it, because for themost part, the rest of us haven't really gotten locked in yet, so tospeak, and we've needed someone to carry us," outfielder Pat Burrellsaid. "He's jumped in there and done that."
Carl Steward of the Bay Area News Group contributed to thisreport. Contact Alex Pavlovic at apavlovic@mercurynews.com.
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