Yesterday
Here are the top 5 July 15 moments in San Francisco Giants history. I get a good deal of satisfaction when they're from all different decades as that wasn't engineered, just sort of happened that way.
1958 home vs. Phillies, the inaugural San Francisco Giants are a game out of first, starting a series against the Phillies, We get 3 hits, a couple harmless singles and a 6th inning Willie Kirkland double that will lead to the only run of the game. This spot is the 9th inning, we're up 1-0 but the Phillies have two on with one out, Mike McCormick trying to finish off a complete game shutout win - he gets Carl Sawatski to go 4-6-3 to give us the victory. It's McCormick's first year in the rotation, he got some action as a 17 year old in '56 and was in the pen in '57. He moved west with the club and in '60 has a strong year, with a 130 ERA+ and 6+ WAR, through 2017 that's the 53rd best season for a starting pitcher in franchise history.
1978 at Pittsburgh, 18 over .500 with a 3 game lead, we're down 5-4 with 2 out in the 9th inning, Darrell Evans singles home the tying run off of Kent Tekulve and we win this game in 11. This is a great lost season for the Giants as it didn't really lead to anything. We won the west back in '71, but here's how many games out we finished between then and '78:
72 - 26.5 out
73 - 11 out
74 - 30 out
75 - 27.5 out
76 - 28 out
77 - 23 out
And then after this season
79- 19.5 out
80- 17 out
81 - 11.5 out
But, here we sit in 1978, 89 games into the season with the best record in the National League.
1983 home vs. Cards, we're 11.5 out, Joaquin Andujar throws a complete game, but we get him in the 8th, down 4-3, Chili Davis hits a 2 run homer. That will do it, we win 5-4. This is Davis's worst career year with the bat, he's 23, in his second full season, and has an OPS+ of 85. He'll never be under 100 again the rest of his career.
1997 at San Diego, we've got a 3 game lead, and scored all the runs there are to score in the 7th, 13 of them, that ties the San Francisco record. Just an inning prior we were down 2-1 when Barry Bonds hit his second homer of the game, a 2 run shot off of Andy Ashby.
Here's the seventh inning (Stan Javier bats 3 times, yes he does, we may still be up)
Javier single
Wild pitch
Javier steals third.
Lewis doubles. Javier scores. Lewis takes third on a Rickey Henderson error.
Wilkins walk.
Rueter safe on a Caminiti error. Lewis scores. Wilkins to third.
Ashby's replaced by Pete Smith.
Hamilton walks. Bases loaded. Still nobody out.
Vizcaino singles. Wilkins scores. Bases still loaded.
Bonds singles. Rueter scores. Hamilton scores. Vizcaino to third and Barry to second on the throw.
Kent singles. Vizcaino scores. Bonds scores.
Snow grounds to first, it's the first out of the inning. Kent moves to second. And we've turned the lineup over.
Javier singles again. Kent scores.
Smith's replaced by Rich Batchelor.
Lewis gets hit.
Wilkins walks again. Loads the bases.
Hill pinch hits for Rueter, 'cause why not? Single. Javier scores again. Bases still loaded.
Hamilton walks again. Lewis scores again. Bases still loaded.
Sean Bergman replaces Batchelor.
Aurilia pinch hits for Vizcaino. Single. Wilkins scores again. Hill scores. Hamilton to third.
Benard pinch hits for Bonds. Repeat-Benard pinch hits for Bonds. Single. Hamilton scores again.
Kent walks. The bases are loaded again.
Snow strikes out. He's made both outs in the inning. And we've turned the lineup over again.
Javier grounds out. We score 13 runs with only one extra base hit. 9 hits for the good guys on the inning.
2004 at Colorado, we just swept Arizona and are a half game back in the west, this one goes 3 and a half hours, it's 4-4 in the 9th, bases loaded, two out, Shawn Chacon hits JT Snow to drive in the go ahead run. We win the game 7-5. At the age of 36, this was Snow's best year with the bat as a Giant, he hit .327 with a 146 OPS+.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
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