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Yesterday
Here are the top 6 September 17 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1971 home vs. Padres, 13 days ago we were 8.5 up, but we've dropped 11 out of 12 (get it together, '71) and come into this one 1 game in front of the Dodgers in the West. This is the first game of a weekend series, a frustrating 9300 paid to see Marichal on a Friday night at the Stick in the heart of a pennant race. We only got 5 hits, the big one coming in the 6th - we trailed 5-3 with one out when Dick Dietz (saved the season?) with a 3 run homer off Steve Arlin. We win it 7-5. Dietz, who, as I've mentioned previously, certainly appears to have been backballed for union activity, hit 62 homers as a Giant, this is #61. We move 2 up with 11 left to play.
1989 home vs. Padres, we're up 5 with 14 left, playing a Sunday doubleheader against the second place Padres. This is game 1, it's 3-3 in the 6th, Pat Sheridan singles home the go ahead run off of Greg Harris, we win it 5-3. Sheridan played in 70 games as a Giant, we dealt Tracy Jones to Detroit for him in mid June. He didn't hit - had a 72 OPS+ in 175 PA. He left after the season and only played another 62 games in his big league career. We lose the second game and stay five games up with a dozen to play. We go home to start a 3 game series with the Dodgers.
1993 at Cincinnati, the thing you need to understand is this team was gone, we were moving to Tampa after the '92 season, RIP, but then stepped in Bill White and Peter McGowan and Barry Bonds and the greatest Giants team of my lifetime emerged in 1993. On August 22 we walked off the Marlins to move 42 games above .500 with a 7.5 game lead in the West. 11 days ago we beat the Pirates, that left us 41 above .500, so you see we tread some water in the interim, and at that point our lead was down to 3.5. We haven't won since. The Braves, meanwhile, have won 29 of 35. We lost the last game of the Pirate series, then got swept at home - at home - by both Cards and Cubs, and we come into this one 4 games behind the Braves. 4 back! We drop 8 straight to fall 4 games off the lead, easily the most we've trailed all season long. 17 games left and we start a series in Cincinnati and we kill them, a skid stopping 13-0. Billy Swift throws a complete game, we jumped on them early with a Matt Williams two run first inning homer off of John Roper. Swift was terrific in his 3 San Francisco seasons after coming over in the Mitchell deal, a 138 ERA+ in 506 IP. We got the best years of his career (he had really come on his last two Mariners seasons, largely in the bullpen) he left for Colorado before the '95 season and finished up back in Seattle in '98. We stay 4 back with 16 left - we only lose 3 more games all season.
2003 home vs. Padres, Jason Schmidt struck out 11 in 7 innings, down 3-2 in the 4th Marquis Grissom hit a 2 run homer - we win this one 8-3 to clinch the NL West.
2011 at Colorado, it's game 152, we're 6 out in the West, having picked up 3 on the lead in the last week with a 7 game winning streak. The WC isn't any closer, so we need to win out and get help. We keep it going here, 3-3 in the 8th, Brett Pill triples home 2 off of Huston Street, we win this game 6-5. Pill had two triples on the game, the only two triples of his big league career. Pill got 259 PA in the majors, all with us, and was okay with a 93 OPS+ but as a first baseman just not enough to get a look beyond 2013.
2014 at Arizona, game 152, still down 3, but 4 games clear in the WC, so with 11 left, we're in good shape but it sure would be nice to get that division title. Tied at 2 in the 9th, Matt Duffy drives in two with a pinch single off of Addison Reed, we're gonna win it 4-2. That pulls us to 2 back in the West, which is as close as we'll get to winning the division. This was Duffy's 27th big league game, it would be next season when he finished second in the NL Rookie of the Year, the following season that he was dealt away to Tampa, and then an achilles tear wiped out his 2017 season.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
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