What is this all about?
Here are all the October 10 games that mattered in San Francisco Giants history. October 10 is a helluva day.
1962 World Series Game 5, we're tied at 2, this is the last game at Yankee Stadium - and we lose. We scored first, Chuck Hiller doubling home Jose Pagan off Ralph Terry in the third, a Jack Sanford wild pitch tied the score - but Pagan came back in the fifth with a homer and we were up 2-1. Remember the wild pitch? The Yankees tied the score at 2 in the 6th on a passed ball. A wild pitch and a passed ball are New York's two runs in Game 5 of the World Series. Until the bottom of the 8th when Sanford gave up a 3 run bomb to Tony Kubek. We lose 5-3 and go back home a game from elimination. Rain's coming - game 6 is October 15th.
1987 NLCS Game 4 home vs. Cardinals we're down 2-1, nearly a must win game at the Stick, Mike Krukow vs. Danny Cox on a Saturday night, both starters throw complete games. They got to us in the second, four singles scored two runs and it took an Ozzie Smith double play with runners on the corners to get out of the frame. Robby Thompson homered in the 4th to cut the lead in half and in the fifth the bad man struck again, Jeffrey Leonard hit a 2 run homer, he's homered in every game in the series, and its a 3-2 Giants lead. In the 8th, we added the insurance, Brenly homered, Krukow got inning ending double plays in the 7th,8th,9th and we tied the series at 2. One more at the Stick, Game 5 is tomorrow.
1989 National League Champions - World Series starts 10-14
2002 NLCS Game 2 at St Louis 15 years later we're still playing the Cardinals, we took game 1 in Busch the day before and this gives us a stranglehold. Rich Aurilia homered on the 4th pitch of the game off Woody Williams, the Cards threatened in the third, runners on second and third with 1 out - Jason Schmidt got a fly ball from Fernando Vina and Kenny Lofton threw out JD Drew at the plate. In the 5th - Aurilia got Williams again, a second home run gave us a 3-0 lead and we'd win this one 4-1. We're headed home with a 2 games to 0 lead.
2010 NLDS Game 3 at Atlanta we split the first two at home, Jonathan Sanchez goes for the good guys here and dazzles, 7 and a third, 11 strikeouts, 2 hits, a walk and 1 earned. Future Giant Tim Hudson is on the other side, we left them loaded in the first, Mike Fontenot led off the second with a triple and he scored on a Brooks Conrad error (his second of the game). It's Hudson who gets the Braves first hit, a 6th inning single - and it's still 1-0 when we threaten in the 8th, singles by Huff and Schierholtz off Johnny Venters put on and one out, but Uribe and Fontenot struck out to end the threat. Sanchez allowed his second hit in the bottom half, Sergio Romo came on -and gave up a 2 run homer to Eric Hinske that gave the Braves the lead with only 3 outs to go. We were down to our last strike in the 9th, tying run at first, 2 out, Craig Kimbrel had a 1-2 count on Freddy Sanchez - but he singled to keep us alive - Aubrey Huff followed with a single that tied the game - and Brooks Conrad's third error of the game allowed the go ahead run to score. Brian Wilson got the save and just like that we were a game from the NLCS.
2012 NLDS Game 4 at Cincinnati - we dropped the first two at home, took game 3 yesterday in 10 innings and now have a chance to square the series at 2. We get homers in the first two innings off future Giant Mike Leake (Pagan and Blanco) to take a 3-1 lead, a Ryan Ludwick third inning homer off Barry Zito makes it 3-2, bur we add two in the fifth on a couple of doubles and 3 in the 7th on a double and a two run Pablo Sandoval homer off Jose Arreedondo - Tim Lincecum went 4 and a third in relief and we win 8-3. Game 5 is a winner take all - and it's tomorrow.
2014 NLCS starts 10-11
2016 NLDS Game 3 home vs, Cubs, we dropped the first two at Wrigley, it takes 5 hours and 13 innings but we avoid the sweep. That seemed unlikely when Jake Arrieta hit a 3 run homer off Madison Bumgarner in the second, a Denard Span double and a run scoring single by Buster Posey chipped away in the third, Span came back with a triple in the fifth, then scored on a Brandon Belt sac fly and we trailed by just a run. Bottom of the 8th, 2 on, 1 out, Aroldis Chapman facing Conor Gillaspie - who hits a 2 run triple to give us a 4-3 lead, he then scores on a Brandon Crawford single to give us a 5-3 lead into the 9th inning. Remember what happened six years ago? Sergio Romo gave up another 2 run homer this year, to Kris Bryant, and we were in extra innings. The Cubs don't get another baserunner until the top of the 13th, Ty Blach gives up singles to Baez and Contreras with 1 out - but gets David Ross to go 6-4-3 and we moved to the bottom half. It took only two batters, Joe Panik led off with a two strike double off Mike Montgomery and scored the winning run on a Brandon Crawford double. It's October 10th magic. Game 4 is tomorrow.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
