Here are the top 5 September 7 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
What is this all about?
Yesterday
1962 home vs. Cubs, we're 89-51 and a game and a half behind the Dodgers after taking 3 of 4 from them in LA. Fewer than 15,000 paid on a Friday night at the Stick, Jack Sanford goes 7 1/3, gives up 3 earned, we're up 6-5 in the 8th, 1 on, 1 out, Ernie Banks at the plate - Stu Miller gets him to line to Cepeda at first, Cepeda steps on the bag for the double play to end the inning. We win 6-5. Meanwhile, the Dodgers lose to Pittsburgh, we cut the deficit to a half game, the closest we've been since the Break.
1966 at Los Angeles, we're 80-59, a game and a half behind the Pirates and tied with the Dodgers for second. Tuesday night at a sold out Dodger Stadium, it's the rubber game of a 3 game series, 2-2 with 2 out in the 12th, Frank Johnson singles home the go ahead run (Roseboro dropped the throw on the play at the plate allowing Mays to score) off Joe Moeller. We go on and win 3-2. Johnson's a Pureblood, 6 seasons in the bigs, all in San Francisco, he only played in a total of 196 major league games as a utilityman. He had an abysmal career 52 OPS+. This was Johnson's first big league game, his second big league at bat. The Pirates lost to the Braves, we move to 1/2 game out of first
Walk off 1967 home vs. Astros, we're out of the race, this is a 15 inning, 4 and a half hour game, bottom of the 15th, 2-2, 2 on, 2 out, Jesus Alou singles home the winning run off of Dave Eilers. It was a 4 hit night for Alou. Alou played for both the Giants and A's. 136 other guys played for both franchises (full franchise history, not just west coast) including Felipe and Matty. Orlando Cepeda was an A (3 at bats) Tito Fuentes was an A (13 games). Gary Lavelle too (6 games). Even Johnny LeMaster (20 games with Oakland). Darren Lewis played in 25 games with the A's. Willie McCovey was in 11 games with Oakland. Kevin Mitchell was an A (51 games) And Jack Sanford (10 games). Dave Righetti pitched in 7 games for the A's. Goose Gossage is not known for either team but played for both. So did Don Larsen. And Joe Morgan. Dave Henderson played in 15 games for the Giants.
How about 200 games for both Oakland and San Francisco? Let's do that.
Mike Aldrete
Santiago Casilla
Stan Javier
Dave Kingman
Bill North
Barry Zito
How about guys who only played in Oakland and San Francisco? Both - but nowhere else.
Bill Bathe
Doug Clark
Kelly Downs
Santiago Casilla
Brian Kingman
Keiichi Yabu
Barry Zito
1973 home vs. Astros, we're 5 back, that's the closest we've been since the end of July, that's the result of a 6 game winning streak. Despite that - fewer than 5000 paid at the Stick on a Friday night. We trailed 6-2 through 6, but cut it to 6-5 in the 8th, bases loaded, one out - Garry Maddox singles off Jim Ray, scoring 2...and then a third on a Bob Watson error...and then Maddox himself came all the way around to score...on his own single...on an error by Doug Rader. We win 9-6 and move to 4 out of the lead with 23 remaining.
Walk off 2002 home vs. Diamondbacks, this is game 142 on the season, we are two behind the Dodgers for the WC spot after walking the Diamondbacks off the night before - this is a 4 hour Saturday afternoon game, 3-3 in the bottom of the 9th, Benito Santiago singles home the winning run off of Byung-Hyun Kim. LA also wins - so with 20 games left in the season, we remain two out.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
