Yesterday
What is this all about?
Here are the top 5 April 18 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1968 at Mets, 7th, down 3-2, bases loaded, two outs, 22 year old Danny Frisella came out of the pen to try to hold the lead against Willie Mays. It went the way you'd figure, Mays cleared the bases with a double for the final margin of a 5-3 Giants victory. This is post-prime 37 year old Willie Mays, who still had an OPS+ of 156 in '68 and was a 6+ WAR player.
Walk off 1973 home vs Atlanta, 3-3, bottom of the 11th, one out, Bobby Bonds homers off Tom House to take us to 10-4 on the young season. We hadn't had a hit since the 5th before Bonds' game ender.
Walk off 1993 home vs. Atlanta, 20 years later we did it to the Braves again, this time it was 12-12 in the bottom of the 11th, we had to score 4 in the 9th just to tie the game, and like Bonds in '73, Matt Williams homered (off former Giant Steve Bedrosian) to send everyone home. Helluva game in what would be a helluva season for these two teams. Braves got 5 in the first off Dave Burba, but 3 in the second and then again in the third put us up 6-5. That lead lasted all of no innings, Bryan Hickerson and Kevin Rogers combined to give the Braves a half dozen in the 4th and we were down 11-6. Williams homered in the fifth to pull us to 11-7, and we were still down those 4 runs, 12-8, headed to the bottom of the 9th against Mike Stanton:
Darren Lewis led off with a walk.
Will Clark singled him to third.
Matt Williams, who, as you've noticed, had a game, singled home Lewis to cut it to 12-9.
Barry Bonds doubled home Clark, chasing Stanton and cutting it to 12-10, Still no one out.
Sacrifice flies by Robby Thompson and Todd Benzinger off Jay Howell tied the game. That's where it stood for Williams three innings later.
Walk off 2007 home vs Cards, 5-5 in the 12th, 2 on, 2 out, Rich Aurilia singled home Randy Winn to win it 6-5 for the good guys. This was Aurilia's return to San Francisco, he originally came over in the winter of '94 in a deal with the Rangers for John Burkett and spent most of the next 9 seasons as the Giants starting shortstop before leaving as a free agent after 2003. He returned as a 35 year old backup in 2007 and retired as a Giant after the 2009 season.
Walk off 2012 home vs Phils, scoreless in the 11th, this had been a Cliff Lee/Matt Cain duel, Lee going 10 shutout innings and Cain going 9 while just giving up 2 hits, Here though it was Melky Cabrera beating Antonio Bastardo with a single that scored Brandon Belt for the game winner. This was Melky's career half year, he had a 157 OPS+ and 5 WAR before a PED suspension.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
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