Yesterday
Here are the top 5 August 10 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1959 at St Louis, it's game 111 for the second San Francisco squad and this is the first game of a (wait for it...) 21 game road trip. We're up a game and a half, it's 2-2 with 2 out in the 9th, Willie Kirkland doubles home Willie Mays off of Ernie Broglio, we go up 3-2 and that's the final score. Kirkland was the starting RF for the first 3 San Francisco teams, this was his best with the bat (116 OPS+). Let's look at the trade.
Kirkland/Antonelli to Cleveland for Kuenn
Kirkland had 2.35 WAR in Cleveland. Antonelli was done. -.85.
Kuenn had 2.55 WAR in San Francisco.
No one was great, but the Giants won the deal.
1967 at St Louis, it's game 112, we're 8.5 out, Mike McCormick throws a complete game 6 hitter, we trail 2-1 with 2 out in the 5th, Willie McCovey hits a 3 run homer off Ray Washburn (who no hits us in '68) and we win it 5-2. It's McCormick's Cy Young season, despite only having a 4.65 WAR so it seems unlikely he deserved it. Jim Bunning finished second, for example and had an 8.05 WAR, so, you know, the writers could have done a better job.
1983 at Atlanta, we're 15.5 back, the season's over, 4-4 in the 9th, 2 out, Darrell Evans hits a 3 run homer off of Terry Forster and we win it 7-4. Career homer 255 for Evans. Evans used to pound JR Richard, 22 of 61, 1.061 OPS. On the other hand, Sutton handled him, 22 of 127, 552 OPS.
1986 at Atlanta, back on July 18 we were a game up - now we're 5 back and holding on to the season by our fingertips. Down 3-2 with 2 out in the 9th, Harry Spilman pinch singles home 2 off of Gene Garber. We win 4-3. We picked up Spilman in mid June when the Tigers released him. This was his 29th Giants game. Two years and a day later we release him and Spilman ends his career in Houston in '89.
Walk off 1987 home vs. Astros, on August 5 we were 5 out but haven't lost since, and now we're a game out of first and starting a series with Houston on game 113 of the season. We're down 5-4 in the 9th, Candy Maldonado and Will Clark go back to back with homers off Dave Meads to win the game. It's Clark's 36th career home run and his second walk off (the first came two weeks prior, the third comes in less than a month). He hits 4 more during his career, one each in 88,89,92,93. Jim Thome holds the MLB record with 13 career walk off homers.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
