Yesterday
What is this all about?
Here are the top 5 September 23 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Who is still with us on 9-23?
1959-we come in 2 out with 4 left and the Cubs walk us off for the second straight day, the Braves also lose, they're tied for first with the Dodgers, we're in third 2 out with 3 left.
1961-we come in 8 back with 8 left and the Reds end our season. Eliminated.
1962-at Houston, we're down 4 with 7 left, a season of chasing the Dodgers has left us totally gassed and after getting walked off the night before we are staring at the end of the road. But - we put it on Houston in this one, Billy O'Dell throws a complete game, we got 7 runs in the 6th inning and win it 10-3. The first run was scored in the first on Ed Bailey's double off Bob Bruce. As important, the Dodgers lose to the Cards, so we get one back and trail 3 with 6 to play.
1964 at Houston, we're 6 down with 10 left, Juan Marichal throws a complete game, because of course he does, and we beat former Giant Don Larsen, who we sold to Houston earlier in the season. Harvey Kuenn broke a scoreless tie with a run scoring 6th inning triple off Larsen. We win 4-1 and the first place Phillies lose - so now we're 5 out with 9 to play.
1965-off day, our lead is 2 with 9 left
1969-the Padres walk us off, the Braves win - so we lose the lead again and are a half game out with only 7 left to play. This is a Padre team that came in with 106 losses, but Clay Kirby and two relievers 5 hit us. Former Giant Ollie Brown beat us with a run scoring single off Frank Linzy in the bottom of the 9th.
1971 at Houston, we're up 2.5 with 7 left, Gaylord comes through - complete game 3 hitter, we win 2-1, a 4th inning McCovey homer off Don Wilson broke a scoreless tie. The Dodgers had an off day, we're up 3 with 6 games left.
1978-we're 8 back with 8 left, and we win, 3-2 against the Astros, because that's who we play on September 23 clearly, but the Dodgers also win and we're eliminated.
1981- home vs. Dodgers, a Milt May 6th inning single off Tom Niedenfuer breaks a 4-4 tie, we win 8-4. The Reds win too, we stay 11 out with 11 left, 1981 lives one more day.
1982 at Cincinnati, 1982 keeps coming, we were 9 out at the beginning of September and now it's 4.5, Reggie Smith does them in, we were up 4-3 in the 5th when Smith hit a 2 run homer off Greg Harris. We win 11-7, the Dodgers have an off day, so we're now 4 out with 10 still to go.
1986-the Reds beat us, we fall to 10 out with 11 to go.
1987 home vs. Dodgers, we've lost 3 straight, our NL West lead is 6.5 with 11 left, Reuschel doesn't get out of the 2nd, but a 2 run Kevin Mitchell single off Orel Hershiser ties it in the 7th, and then at 6-6, with 2 out in the 7th, Will Clark doubles Mitch home off of Brad Havens. We win 9-8. We're 7.5 up with 10 games to go.
1989 home vs. Astros, we're 5 up, 8 to go, Rick Reuschel throws a complete game, striking out 7, the big shot is from Matt Williams, who hits a 2 run homer off Mike Scott to break a 1-1 tie in the 6th. That's it for the scoring, we win 3-1. San Diego wins - the lead stays 5, 7 games to play.
1990 at LA, we're 9 out with 10 left, but 1990 lives one more day, John Burkett throws a complete game and strikes out 9, Matt Williams singled home the first run of the game in the first. We win 6-2, the first place Reds also win - we're 9 back with 9 left.
1993 at Houston, our season long lead is gone and we're 2.5 out with 11 left, John Burkett comes through, goes 8, gives up just 3 baserunners, we win 7-0, the first run a Bonds 4th inning double off former teammate Doug Drabek. The Braves win too - the deficit stays at 2.5 with 10 to play.
1995 home vs. Rockies, we're 9 out with 9 left, but 1995 keeps going, Jamie Brewington leads 4 Giants pitchers in throwing a 2 hitter, the game was scoreless in the 6th when Mark Carreon singled home the game's first run off of former Giant Bryan Hickerson. We win 2-0 and are now 8 back with 8 to play.
1997-we lose to the Rockies and our lead drops to 1.5 over the Dodgers with 4 games left to play.
1998 home vs. Pirates, this is a WC race, we come in 2.5 out with 5 left, Mark Gardner is enormous, 8 innings, 11 strikeouts, we win 4-1 - in the 6th we trailed 1-0 but Joe Carter hits a 3 run homer off Chris Peters. The Mets and Cubs both lose - so with 4 games to go we are 1.5 out of the WC spot. The Cubs took Carter second overall in '81 (Mike Moore went first, we took Mark Grant 10th). Carter was part of 3 big trades - the Cubs sent him to Cleveland in the Sutcliffe deal in '84; five years later the Indians sent him to San Diego for Sandy Alomar and Carlos Baerga, and at the end of the '90 season he and Robby Alomar went from the Padres to Toronto for Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff. We get the last 41 games of Carter's career, he came over in a deadline deal with Baltimore. And he hit the heck out of the ball, a 132 OPS+ for the Giants. This was Carter's 394th career homer, he hits 2 more.
1999 the Dodgers knock us out here, they beat us 5-3 and we're eliminated.
2000 - NL West Champions (clinched on 9-21)
2001 - at San Diego, we're 2 out, 13 left and just lay it on the Padres, 11-2, Barry hits 2, homers 65 and 66 on the season, both off Jason Middlebrook. We scored 3 in the first and just kept hitting. Arizona also wins, we stay 2 back with 12 left (3 back in the WC).
2002 - off day, we're 2 up in the WC with 5 left
2003 - NL West Champions (clinched 9-17)
2004 - we lose to Houston and drop 1.5 out in the West as the Dodgers win, and the Cubs win which drops us half a game back in the WC. So, not a great one to lose - we were up 3-2 going to the 9th and they scored 5. Dustin Hermanson gave up 4 earned and only got one out. 9 left and looking up at both the division and WC.
2005 at Colorado we come in 5 back with 10 left and take the opener in Denver, down 6-4 in the 8th Ray Durham tied it with a single off Mike DeJean and JT Snow gave us the lead with a single that scored Durham. We win 7-6, the Padres also win, we're 5 out with 9 to play.
2006 - we lose to Milwaukee and are 7 out with 7 left.
2009 at Arizona, we're 5 out in the WC with 11 left, so the climb is steep, we only get 4 hits but make them count, up 1-0 in the 6th Juan Uribe hits a 2 run homer off Kevin Mulvey, we win 5-4. Colorado loses and we move to 4 back in the WC with 10 left. Not done yet.
2010 at Chicago - okay, 10 games to go and we're half a game back in the West and the WC, we lay the Cubs out, 13-0, we get 19 hits, score 9 in the second inning. Freddy Sanchez gets 4 hits, Juan Uribe hits 2 homers including a 2 run shot in the second that gave us a 3-0 lead. The Padres lost, we move into first place in the West by a half game with 9 to play.
2011 - we come in 4 out of the WC with 6 left and then drop another game, we lose to Arizona and the Braves win. 5 out, 5 left.
2012 NL West Champions (clinched 9-22)
2014 - we lose to the Dodgers, we still have a 5 game lead on the last WC spot with just five to play
2015 - the Padres walk us off, we're now 7 games behind LA with 11 to play
2016 the Padres beat us but we stay half a game up on the last WC spot with 8 games left
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
