What is this all about?
Yesterday
Here are the top 5 September 20 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1965 at Cincinnati, 2 weeks ago we were in second place but then ripped off 14 straight and now have a 3.5 game lead with a dozen left. We open up a series at Crosley, it's scoreless in the 5th, a Jim Maloney wild pitch scores Jim Ray Hart with the game's first run, we win it 4-0, the hero is Masanori Murakami, who gets a 4 inning save. Murakami, of course, is the first Japanese native to play in MLB, he pitched in 54 big league games, all with us, in '64 and '65. He was fine, had a 106 ERA+ 89 innings. He was just 21 in '65 but it was his last year in the bigs due to a contractual issue with his Japanese club. We move 4 up on the second place Dodgers with 11 to play.
1969 home vs. Dodgers, we were 3.5 out a month ago but now have a half game lead in the West with 11 to go - it's a Saturday afternoon at the Stick, Juan Marichal throws a complete game, we're up 5-4 but the Dodgers have 2 on and 2 out in the 8th - longtime Giant Tom Haller at the plate - Marichal gets him to pop to short to end the inning. We win 5-4 and maintain a half game lead with 10 remaining. Marichal had 244 career complete games, in '69 he had 27 and 8 of those were shutouts.
1989 home vs. Dodgers, we've got a 5 game lead with 11 to go, how about a walk off win against the Dodgers, we're down 7-3 coming into the bottom of the 9th, Mitch leads off with a homer (7-4) Riles singles and Williams doubles him home (7-5). Kennedy then singles home Williams (7-6) and that chases Jay Howell. Benjamin runs for Kennedy, Speier doubles him to third, Litton singles home the tying run off of Mike Hartley. John Tudor was a Dodger in '89, he gives up the game winning single to Brett Butler - we score 5 in the bottom of the 9th to beat LA without a single out in the inning.We stay 5 up in the West with 10 games left.
1993 at Houston, ah, 1993 - we were up 7.5 a month prior, 3.5 two weeks ago, but then lost 8 straight at home to fall four behind the Braves (an 11.5 game swing in a month). We've won 3 straight and come into this one 3 out in the West with 14 to play. We've got a narrow 2-1 lead in the 6th, 2 out, bases loaded, Darren Lewis clears the bases with a double off Greg Swindell, we take this one 7-2 and gain a half game on the idle Braves. Houston shuts us out the next night, the Braves win, so with a dozen left we're 3.5 games out of the lead. DLew couldn't hit and didn't hit in '93, he had a 71 OPS+ - Darren Lewis had a .302 OBP in 1993, so of course he led off in 101 games.
2005 at Washington, we're 5.5 out with 13 left having just taken 3 of 4 from LA, we're down 2-1 with 2 out in the 9th, Moises Alou hits a 3 run homer off former Giant Livan Hernandez, we take it 4-3 and live, albeit barely, to see another day. We move to 5 back with a dozen left. Moises played his aged 38 and 39 seasons with us - he hit the ball - a Giants OPS+ of 135 in 868 PA. This was his 18th Giants homer and 296th career shot. He goes to the Mets in '07 and finishes there in '08. Barry hit
#706 in this one.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
No comments
Post a Comment