What is this all about?
Here are the top 5 June 11 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1971 at Mets, Giants 16 over .500 with a 7 game lead, 52,000 paid for a Friday night at Shea, 2-2 in the 10th, Willie Mays facing Tug McGraw - who throws a wild pitch that scores Bob Aspromonte all the way from second. We win the game 3-2.
1985 at Atlanta, we had lost 5 straight and were 12.5 off the lead, so naturally we played a nearly 5 hour 18 inning game in front of 9,000 paid in Atlanta. 4-4 in the 18th, 2 out, Bob Brenly singles home David Green off of Gene Garber, we'd keep that 5-4 lead for the win. 9 seasons and almost 3000 plate appearances as a Giant, many as the starting catcher - through 2016 he's the 35th greatest San Francisco Giant of all time. On the same day the Phillies scored 26 against the Mets.
1987 home vs. Padres, a game out of first, fewer than 7000 paid at the Stick on a Thursday night, we only got 3 hits, but had a 1-0 lead in the 9th - Kelly Downs looking for the complete game, one out, runners on the corners, he gets Randy Ready to go 6-4-3 and we move into a first place tie. Downs was our ace in '87 and, although he'd finish with only a 107 ERA+, had been good to this point in the season - this was his 4th complete game and third shutout in a dozen starts, his ERA dropped to 2.99. We're less than a month away from the big Kevin Mitchell trade with the Padres.
1989 home vs. Padres, a game out of first, it's the 62nd game of the season, 42,000 paid at the Stick on a Sunday afternoon, down 1-0 in the 9th, Greg Litton homers off of Dennis Rasmussen to the the score. When Litton was 19 we picked him 10th overall in the January draft in '84. 5 years later he's a rookie utilityman hitting this home run. This is his 11th big league game and first home run.
Walk off 1989 home vs Padres, same game, a man on with two out in the 12th, still a 1-1 game, Will Clark walks them off with a game winning 2 run homer off of Mark Davis. It's Will's career season, he had a 175 OPS+ and 9 WAR, it's the best season for a first baseman in franchise history. It's his 5th career walk off.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
