April 22 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 moments in April 22 San Francisco Giants history.

1967 home vs Braves  8th inning, down 3-0, bases loaded with one out, Willie McCovey hits a grand slam off Ramon Hernandez; we won the game 6-5 on a Braves error in the 9th.  McCovey had 18 career slams, he remains the all time NL leader.

1989 at Dodgers 4-4 in the 9th, two out, Kevin Mitchell singles home Donnell Nixon off of Jay Howell for the last run of the game.  The best season for a Giants left fielder in organizational history who isn't Barry Bonds?  It's Mitch's 8 WAR '89.



Walk off 2009 home vs Padres, scoreless in the 10th inning,  2 on, 2 out, Bengie Molina doubles home Andres Torres off of Edwin Moreno to send everyone home.  Molina had 3 1/2 okayish years as the Giants starting catcher, getting dealt in the middle of 2010 to make way for the greatest catcher in San Francisco history.



2013 home vs Arizona down 4-2 in the 8th, Buster Posey, that aforementioned catcher, tied the game with a 2 run homer off David Hernandez.

Walk off 2013 vs. Arizona, same game, now tied at 4 in the bottom of the 9th, 1 on, 1 out, 1-1 count from Tony Sipp to Brandon Belt - he singles home Andres Torres to win the game.  Belt's had a terrific Giants career, through 2016, he's one of the 30 best players in San Francisco history.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

April 21 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 April 21 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1974 at Dodgers 8th inning, down 4-1 - bases loaded, Mike Phillips doubles everyone home against Mike Marshall to tie the score.  Phillips just couldn't hit at all; had an OPS+ of 45 in 301 plate appearances in '74.  No, you should not give someone with an OPS+ of 45 301 plate appearances, no, no you should not.

1974 at Dodgers same game, same inning, 4-4, Phillips got taken down for a pinch runner, and he would score the go ahead run on a Steve Ontiveros single.  We'd win 6-4.  Ontiveros was 22 years old in '74 and got 403 big league plate appearances as the Giants starting third baseman.  By the time he was 29 he was out of the league.

1975 at Cincinnati, 3-3 in the 10th, Chris Speier singled home Gary Matthews off of Pedro Borbon to put the Giants up 4-3, the final margin of victory.  Speier was a good Giant, particularly valuable with the glove, an All Star in '72-4 (his '72 season is the greatest year for any Giant shortstop ever) he got dealt away (for Tim Foli) in '77, but (like Rich Aurilia would later do) came back to finish up his career (and played well in a backup role) from '87-9.

Walk off 1991 home vs Astros, scoreless, bottom of the 9th, the Giants had only 4 hits (matched by the Astros) when Steve Decker came to the plate against Curt Schilling - and hit a walk off homer to beat him.  Giants pitchers ended this game with a 23 inning scoreless streak.   Decker never really hit big league pitching, he had a career OPS+ of 68, but we've never been able to get enough of him, he did two stints with the club and upon his retirement has been a part of the organization since 2001.  Schilling was 24 in '91, this was his only year with the Astros, it is unclear how he felt about Muslims at the time.  Schilling appears to have been, like many of his race and gender, radicalized as he's aged.  Sad!

2009 home vs Padres, 4th inning, down 2-1, Edgar Renteria hits a 1 out grand slam off of future Giant Jake Peavy.  Giants go on to win 8-3.  It was Renteria's first Giants homer and the first grand slam Peavy had ever allowed.  Renteria was a disasterous free agent signing for the Giants, right up until he was MVP of the 2010 World Series.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

April 20 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday.

What is this all about?

Here are the Top 5 April 20 moments in San Francisco Giants history

1964  home vs Reds 8th inning, 2-2, bases loaded, 2 out, Reds left fielder Bob Skinner misplayed a Tom Haller fly ball, allowing Mays to score the go ahead run in what turned out to be a Giants 5-2 win. Haller was the starting quarterback for the University of Illinois when he signed with the Giants in '58; three years later he was catching for the big club.  Haller could hit, except for his rookie season and the last year of his career his OPS+ was over 100 each year.  We moved him to the Dodgers in '68, it was the first west coast trade between the two organizations.  He came back as a bullpen coach in '77 and worked his way up to VP of Baseball Operations until being let go in '85.

1976 at Atlanta, we were down 8-1 after 3, but 3 in the 6th, 1 in the 7th, 1 in the 8th had us down 11-10 in the 9th inning, Dave Rader doubled home Chris Speier off Elias Sosa to tie the score.

1976 at Atlanta, same game in the 10th, Sosa's still in the game for the Braves - he gives up a 1 out homer to Gary Matthews for the final margin of victory.  A year later Matthews, who came up to the Giants when he was 21 and won the rookie of the year in '73, would be a Brave, signing with Atlana after the season as a free agent.

1984 home vs Reds, down 4-2 in the 8th, 1 out, bases loaded for Scot Thompson - he pinch singles home 2 off Tom Hume to tie the game - we'd go ahead on a Hume wild pitch and win 6-4.  Thompson was an actively bad major league player, sub-replacement for his 8 year career (so, of course, why not sign him as a free agent).  This was his first of two Giants seasons, his second ever Giants hit.

2012 at Mets, 3-3 in the 10th, 2 on, 2 out, Hector Sanchez singles off Frank Francisco, scoring Melky to give us the 4-3 lead, which would be the final score.   Sanchez had an OPS+ of 75 in five seasons as a backup catcher in San Francisco; my bet is no other organization ever gives him 600 PA.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

April 19 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 April 19 moments in San Francisco Giants history

1966 at Cubs, 9-9 in the 8th after a game tying Mays single - he and McCovey were both on with two out when Don Landrum, who pinch run for Cepeda earlier (Cepeda had less than a month left in his Giants career) doubled both of them home off Ted Abernathy. We won 11-10. This was Landrum's only season as a Giant (this was his first Giants hit, he wouldn't have another for a couple weeks, he hits .186 for the season) and his last year in the bigs.

1986 home vs Padres, down 5-4 in the 7th, one out, one on - Chris Brown hits a 2 run homer off Lance McCullers, we go up 6-5 and that's the final score.  Chris Brown was a hard deal, drafted as a 17 year old in '79 - Chris Brown played rookie ball in the Giants organization at 17 years old; came up as a 22 year old in '84 and hit right away, finished 4th for rookie of the year in '85, had a 125 OPS+ in '86 and made the All Star team.  You know about this '86 team - 22 year old Will Clark, 24 year old Robby Thompson both come up to become the cornerstone of a resurgent franchise.  Brown was right with them, 24 years old, starting third baseman, had the highest OPS+ on the club.  A year later he was gone, dealt to the Padres on the fifth of July in a 7 player deal that brought us Michell/Dravecky/Lefferts.  Brown never played a big league game past the age of 27 and died in 2006.  2006!  Just 20 years after he beat Lance McCullers he was dead.  Brown wound up working for Halliburton driving a truck in Iraq for three tours; he died as a result of an apparently suspicious house fire.

Walk off 1987 home vs Braves - the day before, we walked off the Braves, here, in a game where we only got 5 hits, we do it to them again. 3-3 in the 9th, 2 out, runners on the corners, Matt Williams, (who homered in the 7th to tie the game; it was his first, that's right, his first ever big league homer as a rookie shortstop playing his 7th MLB game) grounds to second - but a fielding error by Glenn Hubbard allows Chris Brown (who hit a one out double) to score, and we win it 4-3, moving to 10-3 on the season.  This was our best start since '71 built on the back of an 8-0 record in one run games.

1997 home vs Marlins, we'd won 7 straight coming in but were down 2-1 in the 8th, 2 on, 2 out, Glenallen Hill plates them both with a double to right, that 3-2 score holds up.  Giants move to 12-3 on the season.  Hill played for 7 teams in his 13 year career, he had significantly more plate appearances as a Giant, who got his aged 30-32 seasons, than anywhere else.  He was a productive bat, particularly in 95-6; this was his final year in San Francisco, he went 0-7 in the NLDS against the Marlins and left as a free agent. Prior to coming to San Francisco he was once traded for a familiar name to Giants fans, Candy Maldonado.

Walk off 2013 home vs Padres, bottom of the 9th, Angel Pagan doubles down the right field line off of Luke Gregerson, scoring Andres Torres with the winning run.  This was a 10K, no BB game for Madison Bumgarner.  Willie Mays's wife died earlier that day.  Pagan's best year as a Giant was his first, 2012, he never quite got back to that level, he was limited to 71 games in '13 with hamstring injuries.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

April 18 - Top Five Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 April 18 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1968 at Mets, 7th, down 3-2, bases loaded, two outs, 22 year old Danny Frisella came out of the pen to try to hold the lead against Willie Mays.  It went the way you'd figure, Mays cleared the bases with a double for the final margin of a 5-3 Giants victory.  This is post-prime 37 year old Willie Mays, who still had an OPS+ of 156 in '68 and was a 6+ WAR player.

Walk off 1973 home vs Atlanta, 3-3, bottom of the 11th, one out, Bobby Bonds homers off Tom House to take us to 10-4 on the young season.  We hadn't had a hit since the 5th before Bonds' game ender.  

Walk off 1993 home vs. Atlanta, 20 years later we did it to the Braves again, this time it was 12-12 in the bottom of the 11th, we had to score 4 in the 9th just to tie the game, and like Bonds in '73, Matt Williams homered (off former Giant Steve Bedrosian) to send everyone home.  Helluva game in what would be a helluva season for these two teams.  Braves got 5 in the first off Dave Burba, but 3 in the second and then again in the third put us up 6-5.  That lead lasted all of no innings, Bryan Hickerson and Kevin Rogers combined to give the Braves a half dozen in the 4th and we were down 11-6.  Williams homered in the fifth to pull us to 11-7, and we were still down those 4 runs, 12-8, headed to the bottom of the 9th against Mike Stanton:

Darren Lewis led off with a walk.
Will Clark singled him to third.
Matt Williams, who, as you've noticed, had a game, singled home Lewis to cut it to 12-9.
Barry Bonds doubled home Clark, chasing Stanton and cutting it to 12-10,  Still no one out.
Sacrifice flies by Robby Thompson and Todd Benzinger off Jay Howell tied the game.  That's where it stood for Williams three innings later.

Walk off 2007 home vs Cards, 5-5 in the 12th, 2 on, 2 out, Rich Aurilia singled home Randy Winn to win it 6-5 for the good guys.  This was Aurilia's return to San Francisco, he originally came over in the winter of '94 in a deal with the Rangers for John Burkett and spent most of the next 9 seasons as the Giants starting shortstop before leaving as a free agent after 2003.  He returned as a 35 year old backup in 2007 and retired as a Giant after the 2009 season.

Walk off 2012 home vs Phils, scoreless in the 11th, this had been a Cliff Lee/Matt Cain duel, Lee going 10 shutout innings and Cain going 9 while just giving up 2 hits, Here though it was Melky Cabrera beating Antonio Bastardo with a single that scored Brandon Belt for the game winner.  This was Melky's career half year, he had a 157 OPS+ and 5 WAR before a PED suspension.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!