Yesterday
Here are the top 5 August 26 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Walk off 1970 home vs. Cardinals, we're 18 games out, trying to get to the end of the year, 7-7 in the bottom of the 9th, Jim Ray Hart singles home the winning run off of Frank Linzy. It took a 2 run homer from McCovey in the 7th to get us to that 9th inning tie. McCovey was the cleanup hitter for the '70 Giants. Here's every cleanup hitter in San Francisco history (majority of games at clean up for the season).
58-Ray Jablonski/Hank Sauer
59, 62, 64 -Cepeda
60, 65-66, 68-73,77-79 McCovey
61, 63 Mays
67 -Hart
74-75 Matthews
76-Murcer
80-81 Evans
82- Smith
83-Jack Clark
84-86 Leonard
87-88 Maldonado
89-91 Mitchell
92 -Snyder
93-96 Williams
97-02 Kent (like McCovey, 6 straight years hitting cleanup)
03-04, 06-07 Bonds
05-Moises Alou
08-09 Molina
10, 12-13,15-16 Posey
11-Huff
14-Sandoval
While we're here - what's the most commonly used lineup in Giants history? Exact order, 1-8?
In 2000, we had this lineup 22 times, by far the most ever in the 21st century:
Benard
Mueller
Bonds
Kent
Snow
Burks
Aurilia
Estalella
1993 came close, with 20 games for this lineup:
Lewis
Thompson
Clark
Williams
Bonds
McGee
Clayton
Manwaring
But if you go back to 1973, you get this lineup - it appeared 23 times. And this is your winner:
Bonds
Fuentes
Maddox
McCovey
Goodson
Matthews
Speier
Rader
1978 home vs. Expos, what has been a three way race every day of the season hits game 129, we are a game out of first, hosting the Expos on a Saturday afternoon (plenty of good seats available, unfortunately). Jim Barr throws a complete game six hitter, the big blow comes in the second - when Johnnie LeMaster doubles home the first run of the game off of Woody Fryman. We win this game 4-1 to stay in the race. Johnnie LeMaster is an all time bad Giant, maybe the worst San Francisco Giant ever, he had a -5.8 WAR in 11 seasons, he got 3404 plate appearances to post a 62 OPS+. LeMaster had his best offensive season here, with a 79 OPS+
1987 at Philadelphia, looky here, 3 weeks ago we were in 3rd place, 5 games out of first - but coming into this one, the 126th game of the season, we now hold a 1.5 game lead. We only get four hits, 2 of them coming in the 9th inning, a 2 out single by Chris Speier and a 2 run homer by Bob Brenly off of Shane Rawley. Those are the only runs of the game, Dave Dravecky went 7 2/3 giving up 5 hits and striking out 7 and Don Robinson went the rest of the way for the shutout. The Pirates drafted Dravecky in the 21st round in '78 out of Youngstown St. (10 picks prior, we took Mark Calvert from Tulsa, he pitched in 28 games for us in 83-4 and that was his entire career). Dravecky broke into the majors at age 26 with the Padres in '82; we got him in the middle of the '87 season in just an enormous deal that brought he, Kevin Mitchell, and Craig Lefferts to the good guys for Chris Brown, Mark Davis, Mark Grant and Keith Comstock. Dravecky pitched in only 27 regular season games for the Giants (one fewer than Calvert) and had a 116 ERA+ before cancer ended his career in 1989. This game was Dravecky's 11th as a Giant.
2002 at Colorado, we're 11.5 out, our biggest deficit of the season, but only half a game behind in the WC, 3-3 with 2 out in the 8th, David Bell homers off Todd Jones and we're gonna win this thing 4-3. Three generations of Bells.
Gus Bell WAR 10.6, OPS+ 103, PA 7070
Buddy Bell WAR 61.45 OPS+ 109 PA 10009
David Bell WAR 17.35 OPS+ 85 PA 5380
2009 home vs. Diamondbacks, 6 games out of first place, 4 out of the WC, down 3-1 with 2 out in the 8th, Bengie Molina hits a 3 run homer off Chad Qualls, 4-3 is gonna be the final score. Bengie Molina was the 15,000th player in MLB history when he debuted with the Angels in '98. We signed him just before the '07 season and he was our starting catcher until Posey took his job during the '10 season. We sent him to Texas in July and he played against us in the World Series.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
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