What is this all about?
Here are the top 5 July 20 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1968 home vs. Houston, we're 13 out of first place, so the season almost certainly has gotten away from us, Ray Sadecki throws a 2 hitter, gives up only one walk and strikes out 11. We only score a run (Mays scored from first on a single) so in the 9th, we're up 1-0 and the Astros have the tying run on first with Rusty Staub at the plate and two outs - Sadecki strikes him out to end the game. Sadecki, of course, was the return for Cepeda early in the '66 season and we sell him short to the Mets after the '69 season. This is a rough year for Sadecki, he loses 18 games - '69 is worse, he has an 84 ERA+. '67 was his career year, a 121 ERA+ and 3 WAR. Not so much Orlando Cepeda, no.
1983 at Chicago, we're a dozen games back, this one goes 10 innings, 3-3 in the 10th, Jack Clark hits a 2 out homer off of Lee Smith, and 4-3 is your final score. This is Clark's 147th career homer. He'll only hit 16 more as a Giant.
Walk off 1996 home vs. Dodgers, we're 9.5 out, we're well under .500, but any day you walk off the Dodgers it's a good day, particularly here - 50,000 paid at the Stick on a Saturday afternoon, they get their $$ worth - we're down 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th, bases loaded with one out - Robby Thompson singles home the tying and winning runs off of Todd Worrell, we win it 7-6.
How many times have we walked off the Dodgers since the move west?
Twice in '58, a Taussig 9th inning single in May and then a game in September that I won't spoil here.
Once in '59, a Wagner 9th inning homer, the first walk off home run to beat LA.
Once in '61, a Cepeda homer in an August game that we'll get to in a month.
Once in '64, Dell Crandall with a 13th inning homer in June.
Once in '66, on an error in May
Once in '67, Mays hits a 10th inning homer in early July.
A September error in '69
Once in '70 - a Dick Dietz homer in late May
A September error in '72,
Three times in '73, an error in May, and then games in August and September we won't spoil
5 years pass, Darrell Evans gets them in August of '78.
McCovey gets them in back to back years, April of '79 and then June of '80. Whitfield also got them in June of '80.
Jack Clark in April of '83
Dan Gladden gets them in August of '85.
One in '86, a September game we'll talk about then.
How about Eddie Milner in '87?
Once in '89, Brett Butler in late September.
A wild pitch in 1990
Kevin Mitchell gets hit by a pitch in '91
3 times in 1992. Bass in April and in June, Matt in September.
Matt again in May '94.
Matt again in May '95
This game. Robby, July '96. So this is our 30th ever walk off against the Dodgers.
The Brian Johnson game in '97 (31)
Marvin Benard in early July of 2000 (32)
Barry gets one, in April of 2002 (33)
Back to Benard, April 2003. (34) and then Santiago gets them in June (35)
Cody Ransom in June of '04 (36)
Todd Linden in September '05 (37)
Vizquel in June of '06 (38)
Daniel Ortmeier in September '07 (39)
Like 1973 and 1992, we get them 3 times in 2008. Rowand and Velez in August and then Dave Roberts in September. (42)
Juan Uribe in August, '09 (43)
We get them back to back games in May of 2013, a Posey homer and then a Guillermo Quiroz homer. (45)
April, 2014 - Hector Sanchez (46 - the last 3 are all from catchers)
Like '73, '92 and 2008 - how about 3 more in 2015 (and we added one against the Angels for good measure). Panik in April, Justin Maxwell the next day, and then Alejandro De Aza in late September (49)
Twice in 2016, a Crawford homer in April and Posey in June (51)
And, as of this writing, one more, April of 2017, Pence (52)
2004 at Arizona - even though we've won 6 of 8 we've actually dropped 2 games off the pace and are 2.5 out of the lead. here, we're up 3-1 in the bottom of the 9th, but the Snakes have loaded the bases with just one out and Robby Alomar at the plate. Jason Christiansen gets him to ground into a 5-3 game ending double play. This is Alomar's last season, he played in 38 games for Arizona. He only has 24 games left in his career after this one. Christiansen was in our pen for five seasons, his best effort coming in '01, where he was lights out in 17 innings after we got him from the Cards. Other than that, he was subreplacement for us, we sent him to the Angels near the end of the '05 season.
2010 at Los Angeles, we've won 6 out of 7 and are 4 games off the lead, we're down 5-4 with the bases loaded in the 9th, Andres Torres doubles home 2 off of George Sherrill, we win this one 7-5. We had some brushbacks in this one, Clayton Kershaw and Joe Torre got ejected - and this is the one where Don Mattingly, as acting manager, inadvertently made two visits to the mound in the 9th, meaning he had to pull Jonathan Broxton and insert Sherill. This is Torres' middle year of his first Giants stint, he gets dealt to the Mets after 2011 for Angel Pagan. Torres comes back in 2013 as a 4th outfielder, it's his last season in the bigs.
Torres takes over as the center fielder this year, in '08-09 it was Aaron Rowand, it was Dave Roberts in '07, Steve Finley in '06, Jason Ellison in '05, Marquis Grissom in '03-04, Shinjo and Kenny Lofton split time in '02, Calvin Murray and Marvin Benard split time in '01, and Benard held the job by himself in 2000.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
