Panda-monium: Giants offense starting to awaken

• Sandoval got two more key hits Sunday in a 6-1 Game 6 victory
• Sandoval is batting .320 with five RBI in the NLCS against the Cardinals
• Fans wear Panda hats in honor of Sandoval

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Francisco Giants fans come early, and they come in costume.

They wear wigs, in honor of long-haired pitcher Tim Lincecum.

They wear beards, in honor of relievers Brian Wilson and Sergio Romo.

But their most outlandish and distinctive get-up is the furry panda hats they put on.

They come in orange and black, and black and white. There was even a guy strolling down 2nd Street on the way to the AT&T Park for Game 6 Sunday night in a full-body panda suit, bumping fists with Giants fans eating and drinking at sidewalk cafes along the way.

This is all in honor of the Giants' chubby third baseman, Pablo "Kung Fu Panda" Sandoval.

The other Giants players don't wear panda gear. Not yet. They might begin to consider it.

"He's been huge," Giants first baseman Brandon Belt said of Sandoval's offensive surge in recent days. "He's keeping us in the ballgames."

Panda-lovers in San Francisco were about as happy as they've ever been Sunday night, when the Giants lived to play another game – and to allow their fans to wear furry hats at least one more time in 2012.

Sandoval, standing tall while the rest of the middle of the Giants' batting order has been falling, got two more key hits in a 6-1 Game 6 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals that set up a winner-take-all Game 7 tonight, with a berth in the World Series on the line.

"If you put pressure on yourself, you get into trouble," Sandoval said. "I'm really just trying to have fun. When you enjoy yourself, things go your way."

Sandoval, the 5-11, 240-pound Venezuelan who hits third in the lineup, belted late-game homers in Games 4 and 5 that flew a little under the radar, as neither was significant in the outcomes.

But they signaled that not all the Giants middle-of-the-order hitters were slumping.

And then, Sunday night, Sandoval kept it up.

After Marco Scutaro's first-inning walk, Sandoval got ahead in the count off Chris Carpenter and drove a 2-and-0 fastball over center fielder Jon Jay's head for a double. Scutaro scampered to third and scored on Buster Posey's groundout.

Then, in the second, after a two-run double by Scutaro, Sandoval added one more dagger. In a 10-pitch duel with Carpenter, after fouling off four consecutive pitches, Sandoval singled sharply up the middle to make it 5-0.

"At bat, he's got some of the most ridiculous hands I've ever seen," said Giants right fielder Hunter Pence. "He's not trying to do too much. He's just letting his talent take over."

Sandoval has three homers in the playoffs, the eighth Giant to hit at least three home runs in one postseason.

He's not likely to tie Barry Bonds' franchise record of eight homers in a postseason, set in 2002 when the Giants lost the World Series to the then-Anaheim Angels in seven games.

But whatever he can do tonight in Game 7 will be welcomed by the Giants. He's really carrying the flag for the middle of the team's batting order by himself.

Posey, the Giants' cleanup hitter, came into Game 6 hitting .167 in the series with no RBI, and Pence, the No. 5 hitter, came in hitting .105 with one RBI.

Without Sandoval — .320 with five RBI in this series, .333 in the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds — the Giants would likely not be on a five-game winning streak in games in which they would have been done for the season with a loss.

This is satisfying stuff for Sandoval – redemptive stuff. In the Giants' run to the 2010 World Series title, Sandoval was more cheerleader than slugger. He slumped much of that season and played sparingly in the playoffs.

In the five-game Series win against the Texas Rangers, Sandoval played in just one game, going 0-for-3.

Now the Giants are one game away from going back to the World Series.

If they get there, half the city might be wearing panda gear.