Yesterday
Here are the top 5 July 7 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1963 home vs. Cardinals, we walked off St Louis two days before, this is the first game of a doubleheader, we're 11 games over .500 and 2 out of first. Why not play a 4 hour, 15 inning game one? This moment takes place in the 13th, we're down 3-2 with 2 out, Ed Bailey doubles home Jim Ray Hart off of Lew Burdette and the game continues - we win it in 15 on Ken Boyer's second error of the game. It's Bailey's big year with the bat, he had a 147 OPS+. This was Hart's big league debut - in game 2 Bob Gibson broke his shoulder with a fastball.
1965 at St Louis, 3.5 games out - two years later we got the Cardinals in extras again, Bob Gibson had allowed 14 baserunners and struck out a dozen - so of course he was still in the game with the score tied 2-2 in the 13th, Tom Haller hit a 2 run homer and we'd beat St Louis 4-2. Haller and Bailey split catching duties in '62-3, beginning in '64 the job was Haller's, it would remain so until he was traded to the Dodgers before the '68 season
1982 at Mets, we're 13 games out of first, Johnnie Lemaster and his .267 OBP led off for the Giants in this one, we were down 2-1 with 2 out in the 8th, 37 year old Reggie Smith hit a 2 run homer off of Brent Gaff, (in his big league debut) we won the game 3-2. After 6 seasons in LA, this was Smith's last year in the big leagues. He hit the ball with a 137 OPS+ as our first baseman. We ran through a first basemen a year in the front half of the 80s - McCovey's last year as our primary first baseman was '79, in '80 it was Ivie, in '81 Cabell, Smith was '82, in '83 it was Darrell Evans, who had been our third baseman for years after having done a season at first in the mid 70s after McCovey was sent to San Diego. In '84 it was Al Oliver, in '85 David Green - and then in '86 up came Will Clark.
Walk off 1990 home vs Cubs, it's game 81 on the season, we're 9.5 out, 30 hits combined in this one, we knocked out Greg Maddux in the 4th, it took a 2 run Brett Butler homer in the 8th to keep it close, we were down to our last strike in the bottom of the 9th, losing 9-8, Les Lancaster had a 1-2 count on Mike Kingery - he hits a 2 run game winning single. This is the first of 2 Kingery seasons as our 4th OF, he signed with Oakland after the '91 season. Gary Carter went 5-5 in this one. Carter had 5 hits one other time in his career, as a Met in a 19 inning game in '84 that ended at 4 in the morning.
1992 home vs. Phillies, we were 11 out but took 2 from the Phillies here; this was the first half, down 7-6 in the 8th, Robby Thompson hit a 2 run homer off of Mike Hartley. We'd win it 8-7. Remember how we had a first baseman every year in the 80s? In 1980 our second baseman was Rennie Stennett, it was Joe Morgan in '81 and '82, Duane Kuiper and Brad Wellman split time in '83, it was Manny Trillo in '84 and '85 and then in '86 up came Robby Thompson.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
