What is this all about?
Yesterday
Here are the top 5 September 11 moments in San Francisco Giants history.
1966 home vs. Cubs, once again, we're chasing the Dodgers in September, 2 out of the lead, we've lost 3 straight including the front end of this Sunday doubleheader. Who comes up huge in this one? Bobby Bolin - throws a 3 hitter, walking none, striking out 8, and hits the big blow, an 8th inning homer off Curt Simmons to extend our 1-0 lead to 2-0, we only got 3 hits ourselves and that was the final score. Really good year for Bolin a 129 ERA+ in 224 IP. We stay 2 out with 18 games to go.
Walk off 1983 home vs. Astros, no pennant race here, Nolan Ryan throws a complete game and strikes out 11, he had a shutout into the 9th, but a 1 out Dave Bergman single drove in 2 to tie the score, that was followed by a Tom O'Malley single that won the game 3-2. We haven't been in the postseason since '71 and that will continue into '84.
1997 at Phillies, we're half a game out of first in the West, 1.5 up in the WC, its game 146 on the season, 3-3 in the 9th - Jeff Kent hits a 2 run homer off Jerry Spradlin, we're gonna win it 5-3. It's Kent's 27th homer in his initial Giants season and 105th for his career. We move into a first place tie and head to Miami for a weekend series to which I will be in attendance.
2000 at Houston, we've been in first since late July, here at game 143 we're 26 over .500 with a 7.5 game lead, we were down 7-5 in the 9th when Bonds hit his 45th homer of the season to tie the game - in the 10th it was a Bill Mueller triple off Marc Valdes that broke that tie and we won it 8-7. Mueller hit 22 triples in his 11 year career, 8 of them with the Giants. We're 8.5 up with 19 games to go.
2016 at Diamondbacks, we were in first on August 20, but even after taking the first two in Phoenix we're 4 back - we are, however, a game up in the WC. We're winning here, 3-2 in the 7th, 2 out and runners on the corners, Hunter Pence doubles off Randall Delgado to score both of them and we're gonna win it 5-3. Injuries started to get Pence in '15, he missed considerable time in both '15 and '16, and then his bat entirely collapsed at the age of 34 in 2017. We moved to 3 back in the west with 20 games to go - but that's as close as we'd get.
See you tomorrow. Go Giants!
