Hate to break the news. But if the Giants are going to make the playoffs, Pablo Sandoval cannot lead them.

Oh, he can do a lot. Sandoval might hit a home run in every game, the same way he did in the second inning Saturday night at AT&T Park.
But the glorious Panda is just 23 years old. The last 23-year-old Giant to carry the team on his shoulders to the World Series was Willie Mays — a player who comes along once in a lifetime.
These Giants of 2009, by contrast, are a team that comes along every night and drives you crazy waiting for the team’s veterans to step up and show how it’s done through the grind of the playoff chase.
It’s as simple as this: If the Giants are going to reach October as participants rather than spectators, their leader must be someone who was born before “The Golden Girls” — the television show, that is. It ran from 1985-1992. Sandoval was born in 1986.
To a degree, Giants manager Bruce Bochy buys that premise. But not completely.
“Ideally, you do look for leadership from veterans,” Bochy said before Saturday’s first pitch. “At the same time, that guy at third base (Sandoval), he’s not going to fear anything. Neither are the other young guys.”
Agreed. But fear is not the issue. Any player wearing a Major League Baseball uniform has overcome fear of failure at some point, has played in important games at other levels.
However, as the pressure builds and builds for a team in the hunt, younger players invariably look to the older guys for the proper way to conduct business — and for the big hit, the big pitch in a big situation. As talented as they are, you can’t count on Tim Lincecum (25) and Matt Cain (24) and Travis Ishikawa (25) to set the tone and provide every big highlight.
Consider this: Of the 25 active players on the Giants’ roster Saturday night, nine were 26 years old or younger — and those nine men had played in a combined total of zero MLB postseason games.
And the other 16 players, the older guys? They had a combined 133 games of postseason experience. This does not include the 44 postseason games represented by disabled list occupants Randy Johnson and Rich Aurilia.
So decide for yourself. Which players should bear the most responsibility for leading the Giants through the crunch time of a September?
Actually, you don’t have to decide. In order of importance, here are the veterans who need to step it up the most over the next five weeks:
1. Edgar Renteria (34 years old, 55 playoff games). The Giants signed him as a free agent last winter and are paying him $8 million this season. But so far, it’s been a cash-for-clunkers deal. He is batting .259, and Renteria’s third-inning single Saturday was just his third hit in the past five games. For a No. 2 hitter, that’s unacceptable. September needs to be his redemption month — and he’s still the guy who, in 1997 as a Florida Marlin, drove in the winning run of the World Series in Game 7 against Cleveland.
2. Randy Winn (35 years old, zero playoff games). It’s not his fault that he is being used as a No. 3 hitter because injuries to Sanchez and Bengie Molina have forced Bochy to improvise. But how does that explain Winn’s decision to bunt in Friday night’s first inning after the first two Giants had reached base? According to Bochy, Winn had the green light to try and bunt for a hit if Colorado was in a certain defensive posture. Winn did. And was thrown out. A sacrifice fly Saturday night was a better result.
3. Aaron Rowand (32 years old, 15 playoff games). He was showing some spark by hitting .357 in his previous 12 games before being hit on the shoulder by a pitch Friday and sitting out most of Saturday’s game.
4. Barry Zito (31 years old, 7 playoff games). There is no middle ground with Zito. Fans either hate him for the previous lousy two seasons and can’t be won over, or love the way he has come back this season and forgive him. How about this? He’s doing what he is paid to do now, so let’s appreciate it. Not allowing a run in his first eight innings Saturday in a telling game against Colorado tells us he could be the pitching staff’s flag bearer in September. And what would that mean to the young arms? A lot.
5. Freddy Sanchez (31 years old, zero playoff games). Because of injuries, his September status is to be determined. Just like the Giants themselves. But he needs to be back on the field soon — because as any National Geographic special will tell you, one Panda can’t survive by himself in the playoff push jungle.