Yesterday
Here are the top 6 September 9 moments in San Francisco Giants history. Because it can't be
contained by 5.
1962 home vs. Cubs, the greatest San Francisco Giants team of all time has been chasing the Dodgers all year and come into this one just half a game out of first place, we are 40 games over .500, have won 4 straight and are trying to sweep the Cubs on a Sunday afternoon. We're up 5-4 with an out in the 9th, a man on - Ron Santo at the plate - and Don Larsen gets him 3-6-1 to end the game. This was Larsen's 9th save of the season, he had a total of 23 saves in his career. LA wins as well, we stay in second place and the Pirates are coming in tomorrow night.
1969 at Cincinnati, the Reds took a doubleheader from us the day before to move into first place - so just like 7 years prior we're a half game out. Gaylord throws a complete game, striking out 10, it's 1-1 in the 7th, Willie McCovey hits a 2 run homer off of Jim Merritt, we go on to win 7-4 and move back into first place with 21 games to go. Tomorrow we go to Atlanta. McCovey won the MVP Award in '69, he hit 45 homers, this is #42, #310 for his career.
Walk off 1972 home vs. Reds, 3 years later the stakes are lower, there's no pennant race, Jim Willoughby threw a complete game 3 hitter - but we only got 3 hits ourselves, and with one out and one on we trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th - but Dave Kingman hit a 2 run walk off homer off of Don Gullett to win it for the good guys. Kingman hit 8 walk off homers in his career, this was his first and the only one he'd hit as a Giant.
2001 at Colorado, we're 1.5 out in the West, half a game up in the WC, this Sunday afternoon at Coors is game 144 on the season. This one goes 11, 4-4 with one out, JT Snow hits a 2 run homer off of Todd Belitz, we wind up scoring 5 and winning 9-4. Snow hit 8 homers in '01, this was his last, the 159th homer of his career. This is our last game before 9-11, we don't play for 9 days, the Astros come in for 3 games Bonds hit #61 in the first inning.
2002 home vs. Dodgers, we're 5.5 out in the West, but 1 game behind the Dodgers for the WC, and starting a 3 game series against them. Giants vs. Dodgers in September with a playoff spot on the line. That was September 9 2002. 3-3 with an out in the 6th, David Bell hits a 2 run homer off Odalis Perez, we're gonna take this one 6-5. Bell hit 20 in '02, easily the biggest total of his career, this is the last one, career homer 81. We don't gain anything on the lead, but with only 18 games left in the season, the Giants and Dodgers are tied for the WC.
2016 at Arizona, we're 5 out in the West, but half a game up in the WC, we go 5 1/2 hours in Phoenix and use a combined...how many?..a combined 21 pitchers. 21 pitchers? In a 12 inning game? Remember when Gaylord went 16? 6-6 with an out in the 12th, Kelby Tomlinson singles home the go ahead run off of Dominic Leone. We win it 7-6. The winning pitcher - Joe Nathan, who we drafted 21 years prior and who returned this year to pitch in 4 innings down the stretch to end his career. It was Nathan's first Giants win since 2003. This is Tomlinson's second year as a Giants utilityman, he's been fine, as of this writing a career 92 OPS+ in 505 PA. We cut the West deficit to 4, and moved a game clear in the WC.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
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