Yesterday
Here are the top 5 July 26 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Walk off 1963 home vs, Pittsburgh, 24 days before we were a game out of first place - six days before we were 10 back, we come into this one 7.5 games out, trying to win our fifth straight after sweeping the Mets, 4-4 with an out in the 9th, Chuck Hiller hits a 2 run walk off homer off of Roy Face. Hiller got two years as our primary second baseman, couldn't hit enough, particularly in '63 where he had a 62 OPS+. Hiller only hit 20 career homers, this is his 7th and his only career walk off. Here's good - of those 20 career homers, 3 were off Bob Gibson.
1969 at St Louis, it's game 99 and we're 2 games out of the lead, down 6-5 in the 9th, Jim Ray Hart hits a two run homer off of Joe Hoerner, we win it 7-6. It's Hart's 142nd career homer. Hart's last year as our primary third baseman was '68, beginning this year he comes off the bench at both third and left all the way until he's sent to the Yankees early in the '73 season. The first San Francisco third baseman is Davenport, he keeps that job through '63 and Hart takes over from '64-68, in '69 it's Davenport again. That gets us into the 70s with just these two guys (then it's Gallagher/Goodson/Ontiveros/Reitz and you just want to bring Jim Ray Hart back)
1975 at Houston, we're 16 out, playing a doubleheader in Houston, down 2-1, Bobby Murcer doubles home 2 off of Ken Forsch, 3-2 winds up the final score and then we also get game 2. Murcer hit in both his Giants seasons, his career Giants OPS+ was 125. You know who Murcer really hit well in his career? Catfish Hunter. 21 hits in 58 at bats, that's a .362 BA and he had a 1.027 career OPS against him. On the other hand he was a career 0-11 against Dennis Leonard.
Walk off 1980 home vs. Pittsburgh, we're only 7.5 out, so there's still some season left for us to win this division, bottom of the 10th, a guy who shows up on this daily list time and time again comes through - Jack Clark triples off Grant Jackson to score Joe Strain with the winning run. Clark hit the ball, career Giants OPS+ of 134 and he hit even better than that in both St Louis and San Diego. Jack Clark killed Jerry Reuss, 24 hits in 63 at bats (.381) with an OPS of 1.154 and five career homers. On the other hand he was hitless in 14 career at bats against Bill Swift.
Walk off 1998 home vs. Reds, we're 13 out and this is game 105, so the season's done, we only get 3 hits in this one, the third coming with a 1-1 score in the bottom of the 10th, Jeff Kent led off with a homer off Stan Belinda to send everyone home. It was his 4th homer in 3 days. One of the guys Kent killed was Terry Mulholland, 15-39 (.385) with a 1.109 OPS. A guy he didn't hit was Osvaldo Fernandez (0-10).
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
