Yesterday.
What is this all about?
Here are the top 5 May 18 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1966 at Dodgers, at 22-10 the Giants were in first place as they played this Wednedsay night game at a sold out Dodger Stadium. Down 3-2 in the 8th, Hal Lanier tied the score with a base hit off of Claude Osteen to score Don Landrum. We won 6-4. Lanier came up through the system, signed when he was 18, became the starting second baseman in '64, could not hit a lick, never hit a lick, got 3700 sub replacement plate appearances as a Giant with an OPS+ of 50. It wasn't Mays/McCovey/Marichal's fault we never won a World Series, it was all the bums we put next to them.
1974 home vs Padres, Giants down 2-1 with 2 out in the 8th when Mike Phillips hits a 3 run homer of Steve Arlin. You've gotta be getting tired of reading about Mike Phillips every day. We win 4-2. Like Lanier, Phillips was a farmhand, drafted at 18, was a utility guy in '73 and '74, we let him go early in the '75 season.
2005 at Colorado, 2-2 in the ninth, Deivi Cruz continues the May 18th tradition of light hitting middle infielders winning games for the Giants; he triples home Pedro Feliz off of Brian Fuentes and we win 3-2. Cruz was a replacement level utility infielder for two Giants seasons near the end of his 9 year career. He hit 3 triples with San Francisco.
2010 at San Diego, 4-4 in the 12th, runners on the corners, it's May 18th, so who wins this game...it's Matt Downs, he doubles everyone home off of Cesar Ramos and we wind up winning the game 7-6. This broke a seven game losing streak against the Padres. Downs was a light hiting backup infielder who came up through the system, got about 140 Giants plate appearances and would be released about 3 months after winning this game.
2011 at Dodgers, like 45 years prior we're in first place at Dodger Stadium, no banjo hitting utility guy here, just Brian Wilson, with the bases loaded and a 3-1 lead, getting Jamey Carroll to line to right to end the game. It was Madison Bumgarner's first win of the season.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
