Yesterday
Here are the top 5 July 23 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1972 home vs. Mets, we're 17.5 out, just playing out the string, complete games for both starters here, Ron Bryant against Tom Seaver - we're down 2-1 with 2 out in the 5th when Bobby Bonds hits a 3 run homer off Seaver. We win it 5-2. Mays went hitless for the Mets. It's Bonds's 115th career homer. Seaver normally killed Bonds, in 58 plate appearances Bobby had a .118 BA, that's 6 hits - but four of them were homers.
1988 at St Louis, we were 2.5 out just a couple weeks before, but now are 7 back after getting walked off the night before, 5-5 in the 9th inning, Candy Maldonado singles home Brett Butler off of Todd Worrell, we win it 6-5. Candy was our primary RF from '87-89, it was Chili in '85-6 and obviously Jack Clark before that, all the way back to 1977. It was Murcer in '75-6 and before that it was Bobby Bonds, all the way back to '69. That's 2 decades of Giants right fielders. The fight at second base is the day after this game.
2008 home vs. Nationals, we're 8.5 back, we're down 4-3 in the 8th, Rich Aurilia hits a 2 run double off Luis Ayala and we win this one 6-4. The Rangers drafted Aurilia in the 24th round in '92. The only other player drafted in that round, who signed with his team and made it to the majors was Mike DeJean, who had a ten year career as a reliever.
2014 at Philadelphia, 13 games up with a 1.5 game lead in the west, we only got 5 hits in this one, it's scoreless in the 9th, bases loaded, two out, Hunter Pence clears them with a double off of Jonathan Papelbon, we win this one 3-1. Pence took over RF from the Giants after coming over from the Phillies at the deadline in '12. Through '16 he's the 43rd greatest San Francisco Giant ever.
2016 at Yankees, we went into the Break with the best record in baseball, 24 games over .500 with a 6.5 game lead in the west. We haven't won since, dropping 6 straight and our lead is down to 4. It takes another 12 innings and 4 and a half hours here before we stop that slide, 1-1 in the 12th, Mac Williamson singles home Trevor Brown off of Anthony Swarzak and that 2-1 lead holds up. We drafted Williamson as a 22 year old in the third round in 2012 (as of this writing, not much value has come out of that round, Andrew Toles has been good in very limited time with the Dodgers) Williamson's time has also been limited, a couple hundred replacement level plate appearances in portions of three seasons beginning in 2015. He just hasn't hit enough to stay in the lineup despite some opportunities in the Giants outfield.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
