Giants' Ross: From Marlins castoff to October hero

PHILADELPHIA - Cody Ross, Mr. October? Not exactly the first name that comes to mind when you consider a National League Championship Series that also includes Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins, to mention a few.

But no one can match Ross this month in the category of clutch hits, and none were bigger than his pair of home runs off Roy Halladay in the Giants' surprising 4-3 victory over the Phillies in Saturday night's Game 1 at Citizens Bank Park.

Ross ended Halladay's 12-inning hitless streak with his one-out homer in the third to put San Francisco up 1-0. Two innings later, Ross went deep again, sending a long drive to almost the exact same spot in the leftfield seats. That again gave the Giants the lead, 2-1, and they never trailed.

With those two homers, Ross leads all players in this postseason with four go-ahead RBIs, with the Yankees' Lance Berkman, the Rangers' Josh Hamilton and the Braves' Brian McCann tied for second place with two apiece. Ross also has three game-winning RBIs, the most of this postseason, and those two totals combined are more than any other player in Giants playoff history.

During the regular season, with the Marlins and Giants, Ross had a total of five game-winning RBIs, so something has clicked for the guy who usually occupies the No. 8 spot in San Francisco's lineup. With Juan Uribe a late scratch for Game 2, however, Ross was moved up to hit sixth last night, and Uribe's replacement, Edgar Renteria, was in the eighth slot.

He kept his remarkable roll going when he homered in the fifth inning to break up Roy Oswalt's no-hitter and tie the score at 1.

"I just try to take pride in going up there every single at-bat and try to get something going for my team, whether it's drawing a walk or hitting a home run," Ross said. "Anything that you can do to spark your club and to get them, get the emotions rolling and keep it going. That's what I'm trying to do."

So far, it's working, and no one feels better about that than Giants general manager Brian Sabean, who grabbed Ross on a waiver claim from the Marlins on Aug. 22. Ross earns $4.45 million this season, but by adding him with five weeks left, Sabean is on the hook for roughly $900,000. Considering what he's done in October alone, it's probably one of the best investments Sabean has ever made.

"Two months ago, I was down in South Florida and I thought my season's about to end," Ross said. "I'm going to be on the couch watching the playoffs. The next thing I know, I got the opportunity to come over here and it's just been a dream come true. I can't really explain it with words, the way it's all gone down."

Funny that this wasn't Ross' first career choice growing up. Shortly after Saturday's win, Ross explained that he wanted to be a rodeo clown, and in a sense, there are some attributes of that profession that can be useful in this October setting.

"It's something that I had aspirations of doing when I was in my adolescent younger years," Ross said. "My dad was in the rodeo. I used to dress up like him and go to the rodeos, and I guess the reason I was drawn to them so much is because those guys have no fear. They would put their life on the line to save a cowboy."

Now Ross is part of a Giants team that also relies on Pat Burrell, who was released from the Rays on May 15 despite having $9 million left on his two-year, $16-million contract. Burrell was uncomfortable Saturday talking about being kicked to the curb by Tampa Bay, and he got a mixed reaction in his return to Philadelphia, where he played for nine seasons. But it is these overlooked players who have become crucial to the Giants' October success.

"We have some characters here, whether you want to call them castoffs or misfits," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I compare them to the Dirty Dozen. That's the way they play, but they've coalesced into a team that goes out there to win. They play hard, play to win and they give you everything they've got for nine innings, and you can't ask for more than that."