Yesterday
Here are the top 5 August 20 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1974 at Pittsburgh, 21.5 out, just playing out the string, it took a Chris Speier run scoring triple in the 9th to force extras, this is the 10th, 7-7, Bruce Miller draws a bases loaded walk off of Juan Pizarro to score the go ahead run. We win 8-7. Miller spent 4 years in the bigs, every one of them in San Francisco. He had a career OPS+ of 59 as a utilityman. This was a 3 hit game for Miller who never played a big league game after the age of 29.
1982 at St Louis, we came into the month 13 games out - but now that number is 5, and since it's been 11 years since our last postseason appearance, we're a thirsty fanbase. The Cardinals had a 7-0 lead after 4 innings, but we scored 7 in the 7th and the go ahead in the 8th. Its now 8-7 us, one out in the bottom of the 9th, the Cards had runners on the corners and one out - Willie McGee at the plate. Greg Minton gets him to ground back to the pitcher, we got the force at second - and then we got Keith Hernandez in a rundown, Milt May making the tag. Two days later we lost to a walk off steal of home by a backup catcher. Minton was a Giant for a looong time, 13 seasons, we got him out of the Royals system just before the '73 season for Fran Healy. Minton came up in '75, was in a handful of games through '78, and became a full time member of the pen in '79 (he had a 196 ERA+) Minton started closing in '80 - and here, in '82, was his career year, another 196 ERA+, 30 saves, he finished 6th in the Cy Young race, and had a WAR over 6 and a half - Minton's 1982 is the greatest season for a relief pitcher in Giants franchise history. He turns 31 in '83 and starts to slide, '84 is his last season as our closer. We let him go during the season in '87, he signs with the Angels which is where he finishes his career in 1990.
1989 at Philadelphia, on May 28th we moved into a tie for first and have maintained at least a share of the lead every day since, we're 2 games up here, but with 2 out in the 9th inning trail 2-1 - until Earnie Riles hits a grand slam off Roger McDowell. That 5-2 lead is the final score. Riles had one season above a 100 OPS+ in his career and this was it, at 115 this was his best season at the plate as our starting third baseman, he's gone to the A's after the 1990 season. Riles had 3 career grand slams, this was his first - his second was a year minus one day later off of Doc Gooden.
1991 at Houston, we're 8 games out in the west after dropping 3 straight to the Reds, 3-3 with 2 out in the 7th, Will Clark hits a grand slam off of Rob Mallicoat and we win this thing 9-3. Will hit 5 career grand slams, this is the third (the second was five weeks prior) and last with the Giants.
Walk off 2013 home vs. Red Sox, we're 17 out, just playing out the string, 2-2 with 2 out in the 9th, Marco Scutaro draws a walk off walk against Brayan Villarreal for the 3-2 win. Scutaro didn't break into the bigs until he was 26 after 8 years in the minors. We get him a decade later, 36 year old Marco Scutaro comes to us from the Rockies at the deadline in 2012 for Charlie Culberson. He hits, a 144 OPS+ in '12 and when his career ends after just a handful of games in 2014, his Giants career OPS+ is 119, far above his career numbers.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
