What is this all about?
Yesterday
Here are the top 5 September 1 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
Walk off 1958 home vs. Dodgers, the first San Francisco club was in first place in late July - but we're now 8 out and close to waving the white flag. This is game 6 of 9 straight games against the Dodgers (9 straight, it's like there were 4 teams in the league in '58) the second half of a Monday doubleheader at Seals. This one goes 4 and a half hours, a 2 out, 2 run Bob Schmidt homer in the 9th forced extra innings, Mike McCormick gave up the go ahead run in the top of the 16th, down 5-4 in the bottom of that inning, Whitey Lockman tied it with a homer off Johnny Podres, Ray Jablonski had an infield single, Ruben Gomez came in as a pinch hitter to move him over -- John Roseboro fielded the bunt - threw it into RF, and Jablonski came all the way around to score when Carl Furillo overthrew a throw trying to get him at third. That will wrap up the '58 season for this daily rundown, we finish a dozen games out of first.
1967 at Cincinnati, we're 13 out, there's no pennant race here, this is a game where we played 20 scoreless innings. It's a Friday night at Crosley, fewer than 14,000 paid at the start of the game, and it took 5 and a half hours for someone to score. Gaylord threw...are you ready...16 innings, the only run of the game came in the top of the 21st, the Giants loaded the bases with 1 out, and Dick Groat drew what would turn out to be a game winning walk over Bob Lee. We win 1-0. Willie McCovey was 0-8 with 4 strikeouts. It's still the longest game in Reds history.
1978 home vs. Phillies, it's one of our great seasons, a tight race all year enters September, we were in first less than 3 weeks prior, right now we're in second, two games behind the Dodgers, a frustratingly small Friday night crowd of 16,000 paid at the Stick to see us battle Steve Carlton, 3-3 with 2 out in the 8th, Jack Clark homers to break that tie - we win it 4-3. Jack's 22 in '78, this is his best San Francisco year, he's a 6+ WAR player, it's the second best season for a RF in San Francisco history.
1993 at Atlanta, 3 weeks ago we were 9 up, but the second place Braves swept us at the Stick and we lost the first game of this series, and despite our being 39 games over .500 the lead in the West is down to 3.5. 43,000 tomahawk chopping fans on a Wednesday night in Atlanta. 4 Giants pitchers give up just 4 hits, we come into the 9th inning 2-2, John Patterson (in his first at bat of the season) led off with a pinch hit bomb to right off of Mark Wohlers and we win 3-2 to gain a game back on the lead. Wohlers hadn't given up a homer in 2 years. Patterson played his whole big league career with us and he was terrible, a 58 OPS+ in 636 PA. He had five career homers, this was his first.
Walk off 2001 home vs. Rockies, we're 4 out in the West, 1.5 out in the WC, this is Game 136, five Giants pitchers give up a total of 3 hits, but in the bottom of the 9th, we're still tied 1-1 with 2 out, when Andres Galarraga starts our September stretch drive with a walk off homer off of Justin Speier, son of Giants great Chris. Other Giants who have spawned another generation of big leaguers:
Felipe Alou (Moises, who played for us)
Steve Bedrosian (Cam)
Clay Bellinger (sort of, he never made it up with us, Cody)
Bruce Bochy (sort of, he wasn't a Giant, but has managed long enough to include, Brett, who played for us)
Bobby Bonds (Barry, he played for us, maybe you heard)
Pedro Borbon (yes, he played for us, 46 innings in '79, Pedro, Jr.)
Ron Davis (yes, he played for us, 17 innings in '88, Ike)
Mark Leiter (Mark, Jr.)
Gary Matthews (Gary, Jr.)
Dick Schofield (Dick, Jr., and his grandson is Jayson Werth)
Max Venable (Will)
Ozzie Virgil (Ozzie, Jr.)
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
