What is this all about?
Yesterday
Here are the top 6 September 21 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Walk off 1966 home vs. Pirates, we're in third, 5 behind the Dodgers - the Pirates are in second and they've just beaten us 3 straight at the Stick. It's Wednesday afternoon and now or never. Marichal throws a complete game, because he's Marichal, but that's not why this game is here - in the bottom of the 9th inning (after a Tom Haller 2 run homer tied it) Juan Marichal hit a walk off home run off of Roy Face. This was Marichal's best year with the bat (56 OPS+) he hit 4 career home runs. This was the second, he wont hit another for five years. LA loses. We move to 4 games out and head to Houston tomorrow.
Walk off 1969 home vs. Dodgers, 10 games left and our lead is half a game on the Braves, this is a Sunday afternoon at the Stick and we are trying to sweep the third place Dodgers, who are 2.5 out. 41,000 paid - it's a real live late September situation - Gaylord goes for the good guys, Jim Bunning for the Dodgers. They're both gone in the bottom of the 10th, 3-3, bases loaded, two out, Pete Mikkelson on the mound facing Jim Davenport - he gets out of it, Davenport grounds to Maury Wills - but it goes through his legs and McCovey scores the winning run. Atlanta wins too. We stay half up with 9 to play, the Padres come in tomorrow night. Wills committed 284 errors in his career, this is my favorite. What Dodger made his big league debut in this one? Bill Buckner.
1989 home vs. Dodgers, 10 to play and we're 5 up on the Padres, it's Thursday night at the Stick and we're looking to sweep LA. 2-2 with an out in the 7th, Brett Butler doubles home two runs off of Ray Searage, we're gonna win this one 4-3. The Padres also win - tomorrow we lose the opener to the Astros, the Padres also lose. So - with 8 games to play our lead remains 5. Butler had 277 career doubles, 69 of them as a Giant.
1997 at San Diego, the Brian Johnson game was 3 days ago, we're up 1 on LA with 7 left to play, it's Sunday afternoon, 5-5 with an out in the 9th, Stan Javier triples home two runs off of Trevor Hoffman, we win this one 8-5 - the Dodgers lose, so with 6 games remaining our lead in the West is two. We've got one more in San Diego tomorrow night. Javier hit 40 triples in his career, a quarter of them as a Giant.
2000 home vs. Diamondbacks, 6-6 in the 8th, Russ Davis hits a sac fly off of Mike Morgan to give us a lead, we win 8-7 and clinch the NL West - it's the earliest we'd ever clinched a playoff spot at that point.
2002 at Milwaukee, we're 6.5 out in the West, 2 up in the WC - there are just 7 games to go. Three Giants pitchers (great start from Schmidt) combine to give up 3 hits, it's 1-1 in the 7th, Kenny Lofton leads off with a homer off Ben Diggins. We win 3-1, move to 5.5 out in the West and still 2 up in the WC with 6 games left in the season. Kenny Lofton played in 46 regular season games as a Giant. The Astros drafted him in the 17th round of '88 from Arizona (10 spots later we took a pitcher from UC Riverside named Mitchell Ferrick who didn't make it) he came up in '91, finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year with the Indians in '92 (to Pat Listach), was with the Indians until this season when he signed with the White Sox - and they shipped him to us at the deadline. 35 year old Kenny Lofton was just fine, a 104 OPS+ in 205 San Francisco plate appearances. Lofton hit 3 Giants homers, this was the last. He signed with Pittsburgh for the '03 season and finished up back in Cleveland in 2007.
2010 at Chicago, well, here we are, half a game up in the West, a dozen left to go, starting a 3 game series at Wrigley on a Tuesday afternoon. Four Giants pitchers (great start from Cain) give up a combined 2 hits and 1 walk, it's scoreless with one out in the 8th when Buster Posey homers off Andrew Cashner. We only got 5 hits and only needed that one, this was a 1-0 final. The Padres kept pace, so with 11 left we were still up half a game. We get shut out the next day, San Diego wins, so with 10 left we were half a game out of first place - and half a game out in the WC. This is Posey's 15th career homer.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
