Yesterday
What is this all about?
Here are the top 5 April 19 moments in San Francisco Giants history
1966 at Cubs, 9-9 in the 8th after a game tying Mays single - he and McCovey were both on with two out when Don Landrum, who pinch run for Cepeda earlier (Cepeda had less than a month left in his Giants career) doubled both of them home off Ted Abernathy. We won 11-10. This was Landrum's only season as a Giant (this was his first Giants hit, he wouldn't have another for a couple weeks, he hits .186 for the season) and his last year in the bigs.
1986 home vs Padres, down 5-4 in the 7th, one out, one on - Chris Brown hits a 2 run homer off Lance McCullers, we go up 6-5 and that's the final score. Chris Brown was a hard deal, drafted as a 17 year old in '79 - Chris Brown played rookie ball in the Giants organization at 17 years old; came up as a 22 year old in '84 and hit right away, finished 4th for rookie of the year in '85, had a 125 OPS+ in '86 and made the All Star team. You know about this '86 team - 22 year old Will Clark, 24 year old Robby Thompson both come up to become the cornerstone of a resurgent franchise. Brown was right with them, 24 years old, starting third baseman, had the highest OPS+ on the club. A year later he was gone, dealt to the Padres on the fifth of July in a 7 player deal that brought us Michell/Dravecky/Lefferts. Brown never played a big league game past the age of 27 and died in 2006. 2006! Just 20 years after he beat Lance McCullers he was dead. Brown wound up working for Halliburton driving a truck in Iraq for three tours; he died as a result of an apparently suspicious house fire.
Walk off 1987 home vs Braves - the day before, we walked off the Braves, here, in a game where we only got 5 hits, we do it to them again. 3-3 in the 9th, 2 out, runners on the corners, Matt Williams, (who homered in the 7th to tie the game; it was his first, that's right, his first ever big league homer as a rookie shortstop playing his 7th MLB game) grounds to second - but a fielding error by Glenn Hubbard allows Chris Brown (who hit a one out double) to score, and we win it 4-3, moving to 10-3 on the season. This was our best start since '71 built on the back of an 8-0 record in one run games.
1997 home vs Marlins, we'd won 7 straight coming in but were down 2-1 in the 8th, 2 on, 2 out, Glenallen Hill plates them both with a double to right, that 3-2 score holds up. Giants move to 12-3 on the season. Hill played for 7 teams in his 13 year career, he had significantly more plate appearances as a Giant, who got his aged 30-32 seasons, than anywhere else. He was a productive bat, particularly in 95-6; this was his final year in San Francisco, he went 0-7 in the NLDS against the Marlins and left as a free agent. Prior to coming to San Francisco he was once traded for a familiar name to Giants fans, Candy Maldonado.
Walk off 2013 home vs Padres, bottom of the 9th, Angel Pagan doubles down the right field line off of Luke Gregerson, scoring Andres Torres with the winning run. This was a 10K, no BB game for Madison Bumgarner. Willie Mays's wife died earlier that day. Pagan's best year as a Giant was his first, 2012, he never quite got back to that level, he was limited to 71 games in '13 with hamstring injuries.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
