Yesterday
Here are the top 5 August 27 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Walk off 1958 home vs. Braves, we were in first place on July 29, less than a month later the inaugural San Francisco Giants are 9.5 out the fight's all but done. 2-2 in the 12th, bases loaded, Orlando Cepeda draws a walk off of Bob Trowbridge to send everyone home. We'd have one more walk off win that season.
Walk off 1981 home vs. Pirates, a dozen games out, 4 hours on a Thursday night at the Stick, score tied at 4 in the 13th, Jack Clark homers off of Don Robinson to get one for the good guys. Jack hit 7 homers off of Caveman Robinson, more than any other pitcher. The first two were in 1980, within 9 days of each other in May. That second homer was also in a tie game in the 13th inning. This is the third homer. 4 and 5 come next May in the same game. Six comes later that season, in August. The last one is five years later when Jack's a Cardinal.
2001 at New York, it's game 130 and we're 3.5 out in the West and in a flat tie for the Wild Card, 4-4 with 2 out in the top of the 9th, JT Snow hits a 2 run homer off of Rick White, we win this one 6-5. Snow spent most of a decade as our starting first baseman, here's the OPS+ and PA of every 1B in San Francisco history.
Cepeda 140, 4531
McCovey 149, 8523
Kingman 112, 1403 (From 58-73 we had two starting first basemen, Kong breaks that run)
Montanez 112, 826
Evans 119, 4406
Ivie 126, 1131
Cabell 72, 413
Smith 134, 398
Oliver 101, 360
Green 85, 321
Clark 145, 4878 (Clark and Cepeda similar hitting numbers for Giants)
Benzinger 96, 559
Carreon 117, 1025
Snow 112, 4497
Hillenbrand 74, 247
Klesko 92, 411
Bowker 76, 513
Ishikawa 92, 752
Huff 116, 1342
Belt 126, 3149
Walk off 2011 home vs. Astros, game 132, we're 3 out in the West, 3 out in the Wild Card, 1-1 with 2 out in the bottom of the 10th, Jeff Keppinger lines a 2-2 pitch into right center off of Fernando Rodriguez to drive home the winning run. Keppinger played in 56 games for the Giants, we got him from the Astros at midseason. He played a lot of second base down the stretch and didn't hit, had a 76 OPS+. He left for Tampa after the season and finished with the White Sox in 2013.
Walk off 2014 home vs. Rockies, we're 4.5 out in the West, but now there are 2 wild cards per league and we're 2 games up for that final slot. Tim Hudson goes 8, gives up just 4 hits, it's 2-2 in the bottom of the 9th, 2 out, Buster Posey hits a 2 run homer off Juan Nicasio to send everyone home. 17 big league seasons for Hudson, Oakland took him out of Auburn in the 6th round in '97. We took Kevin Joseph out of Rice seven slots earlier, he never played for us, we sent him to the Cards for Jason Christiansen. Joseph threw 11 total big league innings. Hudson did better, 6 years in Oakland, 9 in Atlanta, we signed him as a 38 year old this year for two seasons to finish his career. He was just okay for us, 92 ERA+ in 313 innings. Through 2016 I have Hudson as the 50th best pitcher in MLB history.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
