Gary Peterson: Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria are unlikely heroes

For months, Aaron Rowand and Edgar Renteria have been dead men walking. And that's tough duty, even when you can do it in the finest shoes money can buy.

Rowand played in just 105 games this season, earning $12 million in the third year of his five-year, $60 million contract. It wasn't because he was hurt. It was because he was hurting the team.

He lost his starting job in center field to Andres Torres, became a target of boo-birds and bloggers and finished with a career-low .230 batting average.

It was a mild surprise when he was included on the Giants' postseason roster. He had just two at-bats in six games before being penciled into the starting lineup for Tuesday's Game 3 of the National League championship series.

Pick an offensive metric, any metric, and chances are Renteria established a career low in it this season -- the second of his two-year, $18 million contract. He did three tours on the disabled list and, like Rowand, was criticized for his gross income and meager output. He had six at-bats this postseason before Game 3.

What do you know -- the dead men came alive in the Giants' victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Renteria cracked a leadoff single in fourth, later scoring the first of two runs that inning. Rowand led off the fifth with a double and scored on a two-out single by Freddy Sanchez.

They weren't huge plays on the Fisk-Gibson postseason spectrum, but they were big enough to help the Giants build a 3-0 win. And, more to the point, a 2-1 series advantage.

"You feel good for them," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I mean, they're pros, and they've done a great job of setting aside their ego."

"They've been in this position before," Sanchez said. "The thing about them, and obviously they haven't played a lot, they prepare as if they're playing every day. Their professionalism, and the way they go about their business, is huge."

To appreciate their contributions to this unlikely team, you have to be a fan of nuance and character. Both Renteria and Rowand own World Series rings. Both have appeared in All-Star games. They've made some money. They've achieved a certain stature.

They may not have accepted their roles, but they acted as if they did.

"I would say when I'm not playing I still can do something to win ballgames," Renteria said. "I always pay attention to what (teammates) are doing at home plate. So if they do something wrong that I can (correct), I just tell them."

"I'm a little biased because I love Edgar," Rowand said. "You're not going to find a better professional, a better guy. I told him when we clinched the NL West I consider it a real privilege to have played with him for a couple of years. He's brought a lot to this team whether he's playing or not. The guy doesn't miss anything."

Rowand, too, studied his teammates at home plate. That was as much for his benefit as it was for theirs.

"You have to try to walk through at-bats mentally," he said. "When I'm sitting on the bench watching, it kind of keeps you in the game. It keeps your mind going the way that you would if you were standing at the plate."

But nothing compares with playing, especially when you're accustomed to being a leading player. Thus in the postgame afterglow, as Renteria and Rowand were rushed by all their old pals in the microphone and notebook brigade, the question they faced most, in as many ways as it could be asked, was: How did you deal with all that down time?

Their answer: It doesn't matter.

"It's a lot easier when you're winning," said Rowand, who probably will cede his starting spot back to Torres in Game 4 today.

"It's hard," Renteria said, "but it's not time to think about that. It's time to think about how we can win ballgames, and what I have to do for the big guys."

The big guys?

"Everybody's a big guy," he said, smiling. "I'm a small one."

He was as big as the Giants needed him to be Tuesday. Rowand, too. And unless you're eating what Cody Ross has for breakfast, you can't get any bigger than that.

Contact Gary Peterson at gpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com .