Hunter Pence is Giants’ ol’ dependable

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Hunter Pence has embarked on quite a contract drive — for 2019.

Last year, Pence rolled through September with such fury in winning National League Player of the Month honors that the Giants wasted not a minute in signing him before free agency. The right fielder signed a five-year, $90million contract before the season's final game.

So many players sign huge multiyear contracts and have down years, but not Pence.

The 31-year-old Texan has been every bit the workhorse and contributor that he was when he was fighting to get a big paycheck.

Pence is expected to start all 162 games for the second consecutive season. He has played in all 364 games since he was traded to San Francisco, which the Elias Sports Bureau reported as the longest streak by a Giants player since Hall of Famer Bill Terry in the 1930s.

He leads the National League with 172 hits and co-leads the majors in runs at 101. His 278 total bases rank second in the NL behind Most Valuable Player candidate Giancarlo Stanton, he leads the league with a .366 batting average with runners in scoring position and just had an 18-game hit streak end in Detroit on Sunday.

Moreover, Pence is accomplishing this for a team fighting for a division title. The Giants had nothing to play for when Pence had his 1.060-OPS, 11-homer September in 2013.

With another September like that, Pence could fit snugly in the MVP conversation, especially if the Giants win the West.

DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 06: Brandon Crawford #35 and Hunter Pence #8 of the San Francisco Giants celebrate a win over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on September 6, 2014 in Detroit, Michigan. The Giants defeated the Tigers 5-4. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images) less DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 06: Brandon Crawford #35 and Hunter Pence #8 of the San Francisco Giants celebrate a win over the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on September 6, 2014 in Detroit, Michigan. The Giants ... more Photo: Leon Halip, Stringer / Getty Images Photo: Leon Halip, Stringer / Getty Images Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Hunter Pence is Giants’ ol’ dependable 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Getting Pence to discuss his MVP chances would be as simple as calculating pi in one's head to 1,000 digits.

His mantra, as he explained again last week, is, “Play the game as hard as you can, and whatever happens, happens.”

Pence almost always refuses to discuss his numbers and often professes not to know what they are, but at least on one day during last week's trip, he was aware of one. Nobody had scored 100 runs in the majors this season until he came home on a Gregor Blanco double in Colorado.

When he returned to the dugout, he spotted Michael Morse and said, “That's the first time I've scored 100 runs. Yeah.”

Pence rarely answers questions about his hitting, either. He had this lengthy response when asked if his hot start to the month might portend another monster September:

“Every day is a completely new and separate day,” Pence said. “Every year is a new and completely separate year. Every month, the same. So I'm going to continue to play from where I’m at today.

“I'm a different hitter, probably a different size, weight. Everything's changing throughout the days and the times and the year. I'm facing different pitchers. There are new guys in the league and different defenses.

“There are so many variables, you can never be like, 'Oh, what happened last year is going to happen this year.’ If that was the case, why do we play the game? We'll see.”

Manager Bruce Bochy does not see Pence as a variable, but a constant.

So often a manager has to check with players to see about this ache or that pain before he writes the lineup card. There is one spot each day that Bochy can take for granted.

Pence’s.

“All year, there's only twice I checked on him,” Bochy said. “I just put him in the lineup and let him go. He's got to be the lowest-maintenance player I've ever had.

“We've just got to make sure we put kale out there for lunch every day, and he's good to go.”

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman