Yesterday
Here are the top 5 August 15 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1964 home vs. Braves, we're in this one, 4 games out of first, hosting Milwaukee, we're up in the 9th, 8-7, but the Braves have the bases loaded with 1 out, Bob Shaw ends the game by getting Joe Torre to ground into a 6-3 DP to keep us just off the lead. Five years prior, a 26 year old Shaw finished third in the AL Cy Young race with the White Sox, he won 18 games and had a 141 ERA+. This is his first season as a Giant and his first only coming out of the pen, we got him from these Braves in the offseason in the 6 player deal that sent Felipe Alou to the Braves. Shaw's best Giants season is '65, he moves into the rotation and has a 137 ERA+. That's the last good year of his career, we send him to the Mets at midseason in '66 and he finishes as a Cub the following season.
1965 home vs. Phillies, we've lost 3 straight and are 3.5 out of first place, this is a Sunday afternoon at the Stick and we score 15 runs. We're down 4-1 in the third, Jim Ray Hart turns it around with a grand slam off of Ray Culp - we win it 15-9. It's Hart's first career grand slam, he's gonna hit two more, one next season and one in '68.
1993 at Chicago, so, here's weird, we've won 4 out of 5, but our lead has dropped from 9 to 7.5 in that span. Must be a clerical error. Anyway, we're 39 games over .500 so obviously all is well, 31 combined hits on a Sunday afternoon at Wrigley. 7-7 in the 11th, Barry Bonds hits his second homer of the day, this one off Randy Myers, and we win it 9-7. Barry Bonds had a 206 OPS+ in '93.
How many San Francisco Giants have had a 200 OPS+ (minimum 100 PA)
2004 Bonds 263
2003 Bonds 231
2002 Bonds 268
2001 Bonds 259
1993 Bonds 206
1969 McCovey 209
Walk off 2001 home vs. Marlins, 1 out in the west, half a game up in the wild card, this is game 120 on the season, Russ Ortiz goes 8 2/3, giving up just 5 hits - we only had 3, the final one sent everyone home, it was 1-1 in the bottom of the 9th, John Vander Wal doubled home Jeff Kent off of Vic Darensbourg to win the game. Vander Wal had a 14 year big league career, most of which as a pinch hitter, backup OF/1B. He was a Giant for 49 games, he came over at the deadline from the Pirates in the Jason Schmidt trade and had a dead even 100 OPS+ in 167 PA. This was Vander Wal's 13th Giants game, he played a lot of RF for us down the stretch, at the end of the season, we sent him to the Yankees for Jay Witasick.
2013 at Washington, on July 20th we were 4 1/2 out (we're in it!) and now it's 17.5 (we're dead) on game 120, down 3-1 in the 9th, 2 on, 2 out, 2 strikes - and Hector Sanchez pinch hits a 3 run homer off of Rafael Soriano and we win the game 4-3. After 5 years as our backup catcher (Giants OPS+ 75) he went to the White Sox and then the Padres.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
