July 3 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

What is this all about?

Yesterday

Here are the top 5 July 3 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

Walk off 1974 home vs Padres, this is game 81 on the season and we are (gulp) 20.5 games out of first place.  Fewer than 3500 paid on a Wednesday afternoon at the Stick, 2-2 in the 10th, Gary Matthews leads off with a walk off homer off of Vincente Romo.  It's the 49th walk off home run in San Francisco history. It's Matthews' first career walk off homer and the only one he'd hit as a Giant, 7 years later he'd hit list last walk off off of Vincent's brother Enrique.

1980 home vs. Reds, nearing the halfway point, 9.5 games out of first place, up 4-3 in the 9th, 2 on, 2 out, Johnny Bench at the plate - Greg Minton gets him to ground out to end the game. A 144 ERA+ for Minton in '80, he's worth three and a half WAR, the 22nd best season for a reliever in franchise history.  Minton was good against Bench, holding him to a .217 BA with no homers in 26 career plate appearances.

1982 at San Diego, this is game 80, we're a dozen games out of first, this is a 4 and a half hour 15 inning Saturday night ballgame at Jack Murphy, at 3-3 in the 15th, Chili Davis broke the tie with a homer off of Floyd Chiffer, and that turns out to be the winner.  This is Chili's first full season in the big leagues, he finished 4th in the NL Rookie of the Year race (Steve Sax won, future Giant Willie McGee finished third, Ryne Sandberg finished 6th). It's Chili's 9th career homer, he'll never again hit one so late in a game.

1998 home vs. Dodgers, we're 14 games over .500 but 4.5 out of first, Orel Hershiser, pitching for us, goes 7 and gives up 4 hits, we're down 2-1 in the 5th, JT Snow hits a 3 run homer off Ismael Valdez, we win this one 6-3.  Snow benefited from the lack of advanced defensive metrics back in the 90s, he won a string of gold glove despite being average at first.  It's his second year in San Francisco, we got him from the Angels for Allen Watson and he remains the Giants first baseman for a decade, other than McCovey, no one plays more games at first for San Francisco. This is his 103rd career homer.

2016 at Arizona, 19 games over .500 and up 5 in the west, 4-4 in the 11th, a Ramiro Pena pinch double off of Enrique Burgos scores Jarrett Parker with what will hold up as the winning run.  Pena played 30 games with the Giants, all in 2016, this is his 13th, he's sent down at the end of the month and that might be the end of his big league career.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!