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When the San Francisco Giants won the World Series in 2010, the first and fifth games were started by Tim Lincecum, then a 26-year-old sensation. Matt Cain started Game 2, Jonathan Sanchez Game 3 and a rookie left-hander named Madison Bumgarner Game 4. Brian Wilson, the bizarre closer, was on the mound for the final two victories, and the Giants beat Texas in five games behind a pitching staff that posted a 2.45 ERA.

When the 2014 World Series begins Tuesday in Kansas City, the Giants will go for their third title in five years almost certainly by bringing an 11-man pitching staff that is worlds away from the one that brought San Francisco its first championship. Lincecum is in the bullpen, his two Cy Youngs long ago; he hasn’t yet made a postseason appearance. Cain is out for the season because of an elbow injury. Sanchez was dealt – to the Royals, of all teams – in the fall of 2011.

And Bumgarner will start Game 1.

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As the Giants try for what amounts to a mini-dynasty, there is lots of talk about continuity.

“It played such a huge role in this run that we’ve had,” Manager Bruce Bochy said. “I mean, these guys have been through it. They have been battle-tested, and they know how to handle themselves on this type of stage.”

There is some truth to that, but it is remarkable to consider how much turnover is involved on the postseason rosters – not just from 2010 to now, but from 2012 to now as well.

First off, the rotation. Who started Game 1 of the 2012 World Series? None other than Barry Zito, now retired from baseball. He was, amazingly, relieved by Lincecum, and they beat Detroit’s Justin Verlander.

The Giants needed seven games to beat the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series, so they couldn’t set up their rotation as they would have liked. But the other starters in that World Series sweep of Detroit: Bumgarner in Game 2, Ryan Vogelsong in Game 3 and Cain in Game 4.

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Wilson spent that postseason hanging around the Giants, but he couldn’t pitch because of an elbow injury. He has spent the past two years as a setup man with the Dodgers. So the Giants struggled for much of the year to find a closer, and finally settled on Sergio Romo, who wasn’t even established in the role until September. In the postseason, though, he gave up one run in 10 appearances and allowed the opposition a .111 batting average.

Romo will be there in Kansas City on Tuesday night, and he could pitch a key role. But on June 22, he blew his fifth save of the year, and his ERA sat at 5.01. On July 5, 6 and 9, Santiago Casilla entered in the ninth and notched a save. Another internal solution – Casilla has been with the Giants since 2010 — he hasn’t given up the role yet.

So with Casilla as the closer and Bumgarner, Jake Peavy, Tim Hudson and Vogelsong likely to make up the rotation, the Giants are different at the start and ends of games. Some of the continuity, then, comes in the middle.

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Not long after the 2008 season, lefty reliever Jeremy Affeldt signed as a free agent with the Giants. At the trade deadline in 2010, San Francisco traded two bit players – reserve outfielder John Bowker and lefty Joe Martinez – to Pittsburgh for lefty Javier Lopez. Together, Affeldt and Lopez have combined to make 705 appearances for the Giants in the regular season and the playoffs. Bochy has such comfort with each of them that they re-signed after they became free agents, Lopez with a three-year, $13-million deal that began this season, Affeldt with a three year, $18-million deal that runs through 2015.

The Giants used 11 pitchers in the 2010 World Series. Of those, only Bumgarner, Lopez and Affeldt remain in their same roles – though Bumgarner was a rookie then, an ace now. Lincecum likely will be on the roster, but won’t start. Romo and Casilla – setup men back then — will be there too, the former having lost the closer’s job since, the latter having inherited it.

Continuity? Sure, there’s some. But maybe the more remarkable thing about the Giants’ third pennant in five years is how many different pitchers are fulfilling different roles for a pitching staff that has won eight times in 10 postseason games with a 2.18 ERA.

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