Yesterday
Here are the top 5 September 6 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1962 at Los Angeles, doesn't get much bigger than this for a September 6, it's game 140 on the season, the two best teams in baseball are in the last game of a four game series, Marichal won last night to cut the Dodger lead to 2.5, it's a sold out Dodger Stadium on a Thursday night, over 50,000 paid, 5-5 with 2 out in the 9th inning, Orlando Cepeda draws a full count bases loaded walk against Ron Perranoski, we're gonna win this one 9-6 to cut the LA lead to 1.5. San Francisco moves to 89-51 having won 3 of 4 in LA. This is the 5th San Francisco team, but only the second season we were really playing meaningful games in September, the '59 team was 3 up on September 6 and wound up finishing in third.
1965 at Los Angeles, remember 3 years ago? Here we are again, game 135, 2 out of first, starting a series in LA against the first place Dodgers. Sold out Dodger Stadium on a Monday afternoon, Don Drysdale against...are you ready...44 year old Warren Spahn who only has 3 starts left in his big league career. Spahn's knocked out early, a 9th inning Tom Haller homer off of Drysdale ties it at 6, and a Jim Davenport single off Howie Reed in the 12th breaks that tie, we gave up 16 hits but still win 7-6 to move a game out of first place. Spahn was 19 when he signed with the Braves (they were still the Bees) in 1940, and stayed in that organization nearly a quarter century, he signed with the Mets after the '64 season, they let him go at midseason '65 and we signed him for the last 16 games of his big league career. He was fine, a 107 ERA+ in 71 IP. He started 11 of those games.
July 22 home vs Reds, went 2 1/3, took the loss.
July 27 home vs. Cards, complete game, gave up just 2 earned but we got shutout.
August 8, at Cards, went 5 1/3, gave up 1 earned, got the win
August 13, home vs. Phils, went 6, nothing earned, but got the loss
August 19, home vs Dodgers, went 6 1/3, 3 earned, lost
August 23 (cause why give a 44 year old man more than 3 days rest? at Pittsburgh, 6 1/3, 4 earned, lost
August 27, at New York, 6 2/3, 2 earned, won
August 31, at Philadelphia - another complete game loss, we got shutout again.
This game, his worst start as a Giant, knocked out in the 2nd.
September 12, home vs. Cubs, complete game win, two earned
And then his last big league start, September 27, home against the Cards, goes 5, gives up 2 earned, gets the win
Walk off 2002 home vs. Diamondbacks, we're 8.5 out, but that's okay - we're 2 out of the WC, it's game 141, we've dropped 2 straight, Friday night at Pac Bell, Kirk Rueter gets it done, 8 shutout innings, only 3 hits, it's scoreless in the 9th - 2 on, 1 out, Reggie Sanders singles home the winning run off of Mike Fetters and we maintain WC pace. Rueter, who is 2 months younger than I am, has been retired since 2005. The Expos got him in the 18th round in '91 (the best player taken that round was Mike Cameron, 11 spots later - we drafted an Oregon HS pitcher named Kevin Brown who was not one of the Kevin Browns to make it). We got him in his 4th big league season, at the deadline for Mark Leiter - he spent a decade in our rotation and was okay, had a 96 ERA+ in 1614 IP. He was good this year (120 ERA+) and then began his slide, finishing his career in 2005.
Walk off 2003 home vs. Diamondbacks, it's not a pennant race because we're a dozen games up, 31 games over .500, 4-4 in the 11th, 2 out, bases loaded - Marquis Grissom draws a walk off walk from Matt Mantei and our march to October continues. Grissom was Rueter's teammate in Montreal a decade prior, this is his first season as a Giant, he had been a Dodger the prior two seasons. Grissom is okay in 3 Giants seasons, a 94 OPS+ in 1371 PA and, like Rueter, his career ends after the '05 season.
2010 at Diamondbacks, because who else would we be playing on September 6, we're a game out of first in the West, 7 Giants pitchers give up a total of 5 hits, we're scoreless in the 11th, 2 on, 2 out, Nate Schierholtz triples home the go ahead run off of Aaron Heilman, we win it 2-0. 15 triples for Schierholtz as a Giant, his career ends with the Nationals in 2014.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
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