By: Eric He

SAN FRANCISCO – With both the Warriors and Sharks losing in the championship round within a week, Bay Area sports fans are understandably in a bit of a depression.

But they don’t have to look far to find a team more than capable of bringing home a title by the year’s end: the San Francisco Giants.

While pivotal, do-or-die basketball and hockey games were held in Oakland and San Jose over the last couple of months, the Giants have quietly racked up regular season wins in May and June.

On Friday night, with no Warriors or Sharks around and the A’s on the road, the Giants had the Bay Area’s undivided attention, and they reminded everyone that they are still a damn good baseball team.

Sure, they barely hung on with a near-bullpen implosion to beat the lowly Phillies, 5-4, but the Giants are rolling nonetheless.

They are now a season-best 21 games over .500 with 48 wins, tied with the Cubs for most in the majors. The Giants have won 12 of their last 13 games and are comfortably in first place in the division — seven games ahead of the underperforming Dodgers. Since May 11^th, the Giants are 31-9 — the best record in all of baseball. In fact, they have never won more than 31 games in a 40-game span — the last time they did that was in 1954, when they were still the New York Giants.

“Honestly, I didn’t know that,” said first baseman Brandon Belt, when asked about that mark. “That’s pretty impressive. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun when you win games. That comes from the top all the way down. Nobody ever feels like we’re ever out of a game. We always feel like we have a shot at coming back.”

In a year of history in Bay Area sports — the Warriors winning 73 games, the Sharks reaching their first-ever Stanley Cup Final — the Giants are having a historical season themselves, flying under the radar.

Now, they’re in the spotlight.

Friday night was just another ho-hum win for the hottest team in the majors. Jake Peavy held the Phillies to two runs in seven innings. He exited the game on the hook for the loss, but by the end of the seventh, he was on track for a resounding win.

“Big league wins are never easy,” Peavy said. “Once again, the boys did what we most always do, and that’s find a way to hold on. Big job by everybody. The concentration level when things aren’t well, to be able to finish the drill was key.”

Trailing 2-1 and getting nothing off Phillies’ starter Zach Eflin, the Giants turned the game around in a hurry against the bullpen. Two hits to lead off the inning, a sac bunt, a walk and then a bases-clearing double by Belt to deep right field sent a sellout crowd at AT&T Park into a frenzy.

What’s comforting about the Giants is that they’ve proven they can win with the same core players, year after year. Madison Bumgarner is still their horse. Buster Posey is still their rock-star catcher. Belt and Brandon Crawford are still studs on the infield. Manager Bruce Bochy is still guiding the ship in firm command.

“They’ve done it so many times, so it’s not like they’re feeling any pressure up there,” Bochy said on the timely hitting.

Indeed, the Giants are batting .316 with runners in scoring position in their last 11 games.

“They’re used to it,” Bochy continued. “You don’t want to have to be the guy, but I think all of them do. They want to be up there, being the guy with men on base, when we need a big hit.”

It doesn’t matter who happens to step up. The Warriors’ mantra is “Strength in Numbers,” and the Giants reflect that as well. The theme of a true “team” has continued to ring true, with unsung heroes stepping up to make important plays — think back to Travis Ishikawa and Michael Morse during the Giants’ 2014 World Series triumph.

With two regulars in Hunter Pence and Matt Duffy on the shelf, the Giants have not missed a beat.

“As we’ve done in the past in those World Series years, we just have a lot of guys step up in their place,” Belt said. “I don’t know if it’s anyone in particular, but just the entire team steps it up a notch. We have some big guys out. We need a total effort from just about everybody. I don’t think there’s one person that has to step and do it. It’s got to be a team thing.”

On Friday, it was third baseman Ramiro Pena, a 30-year-old journeyman playing his first major league games since 2014 with the Giants, shining in the biggest moment. With the Giants hanging on by a thread in the ninth, up by a run with two outs but with the bases loaded, Pena charged a weakly hit ground ball by Tyler Goeddel and threw him out by a hair with a tremendous defensive play to end the game.

“The last play of the game, it’s hard to make a better play with what was at stake and Pena just made a great play there to save us,” said Bochy.

Belt, who leads the team with a .305 batting average and should receive All-Star consideration, doesn’t feel pressured in the least to be the star every night.

“As a player, you want to feel like you’re helping the team win ball games,” he said. “That’s a lot of fun, but at the same time, nobody feels like they have to get the job done because they know the guy behind them will be able to pick them up.”

Now that right there is “Strength in Numbers,” but unlike the Warriors and the hockey team in the South Bay, the Giants may very well finish their historic season with a championship. And since it’s an even year, I wouldn’t bet against them.