Yesterday
What is this all about?
Here are the top 5 April 30 Moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Walk off 1982 home vs Mets, Giants down 4-2 in the 9th, 2 on, Reggie Smith hits a 3 run homer off Neil Allen to send everyone home. Reggie Smith was a terrific baseball player who should have made some Hall of Fame noise, this was the last year of his career, he was 37 years old - and he still hit the ball, he had a 134 OPS+.
Walk off 1986 home vs Pirates, 5,000 paid attendance for a four hour game, the Giants tied it in the 9th to force extra innings, this spot was the 12th, bases loaded, 2 out, Chris Brown singles home Robby Thompson off of Bob Patterson to win the game. Brown hit .317 in '86, he never hit .250 again in his career.
1996 at San Diego, Giants down 4-2 in the 5th, bases loaded, Bob Tewksbury on the mound...Barry Bonds at the plate...grand slam, Giants up 6-4 and go on to win 9-4. Barry hit 586 home runs as a Giant, 9 of them grand slams, this was his third.
2011 at Washington, six Giants pitchers combined on a two hitter (it was less dominant that it seems, Jonathan Sanchez either walked or hit by pitch 7 of the Nats first ten batters) the last was Brian Wilson, who (through walks and hit batsmen) had the bases loaded with 2 out, a 2-1 lead and a full count on Adam LaRoche - and he struck him out. The Giants were the first team in over half a century to put a dozen men on base via walks/hit batsmen and give up less than 2 runs.
2013 at Arizona, this was scoreless (Bumgarner vs. Cahill) until the bottom of the 8th when the Snakes went up a run, now it's the top of the 9th, JJ Putz on the mound, he gives up a 2 run homer to Pablo Sandoval and that winds up the final score. Except for 2010, in every year of Sandoval's 7 year Giants career his OPS+ was over 110, and he hasn't broken 100 since leaving (through the 2016 season).
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
