SAN FRANCISCO  To get an idea of how the atmosphere has changed in the Giants’ clubhouse over the last two years, consider the scenery. Long gone is the black leather recliner that monopolized Barry Bonds’s corner of the room, the area that came with its own climate  chilly.

Into that vacuum Pablo Sandoval zoomed Thursday, hijacking his injured teammate Emmanuel Burriss’s bright blue electric scooter and racing around the expansive room. A dervish with a devilish grin, Sandoval weaved around pillars, laundry carts and some objects that were less inanimate (teammates) than others (reporters).

Sandoval’s joy ride was another sign that after the joyless exercise that was the final years of the Bonds era, the Giants are having fun on and off the field.

San Francisco, which has not had a winning record since 2004 and has not reached the postseason since 2003, sits in an unlikely position  tied with Colorado at the head of the National League wild-card chase.