Yesterday
What is this all about?
Top 5 May 14 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Walk off 1965 home vs Astros, complete game 4 hitter by Gaylord Perry, but it was 1-1 in the bottom of the 9th when Jim Ray Hart led off with a homer off of Ken Johnson. In his 12 year career Hart hit two walk off homers - the second one comes a month later.
Walk off 1967 home vs Astros, we had already taken the first half of a doubleheader but trailed 3-0 headed to the 8th. We got two in that frame but were still down 3-2 with a man on and 2 out in the bottom of the 9th when Ollie Brown hit a 2 run homer off Claude Raymond (Brown took a Raymond fastball off the face two days prior). Brown signed with the Giants at 18, came up to the club when he was 21 in 1965 - he was an adequate starting right fielder in '67 and was drafted away by the Padres a year later, becoming their first ever player.
Walk off 1978 home vs Cardinals, first game of a Sunday doubleheader and it goes a dozen innings, 4-4 in the 12th, 2 out, Terry Whitfield hits a game winning homer off Mark Littell. The Giants had to score two runs late to force extra innings. Whitfield did four reasonable years as our left fielder in the 70s before heading off to Japan in 1981. This was the only walk off home run of his big league career.
Walk off 1978 home vs Cardinals, not the same game as the one before - this is the second half of the doubleheader, we walked off the Cardinals in extra innings in both ends of a doubleheader in 1978. Bottom of the 10th inning, runners on the corners with 2 out in a 3-3 game, Marc Hill singles home Terry Whitfield off of Mark Littell (losing pitcher in both games) to complete the doubleheader sweep. The Giants had to score two runs late to force extra innings. We played the same game twice on May 14, 1978. In a 14 year career Hill was his club's primary catcher twice, with the Giants in '77 and '78 and they were his two best seasons, with positive WAR and OPS+ in the mid 80s. He spent backup catcher-ish level of productive years with the Giants.
Walk off 1995 home vs Pittsburgh, we scored a run in the first, they scored a run in the second - that was it until the bottom of the 10th when Darren Lewis singled home Royce Clayton off of Dan Miceli to win the game. D-Lew didn't finish the season in San Francisco, he went to Cincinnati in the big Deion Sanders deadline deal.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
