May 6 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 May 6 moments in San Francisco Giants History

Walk off 1973 home vs Cubs, first game of a double header, the Giants scored 9 runs in the first four innings but were tied 9-9 in the bottom of the 12th when Bobby Bonds hit a 2 run homer off Jack Aker to win it for the good guys - we'd also win the nightcap to move us to 22-9 on the season. '73 was Bonds' best San Francisco season, he was an 8 win player - it's the best year a San Francisco right fielder ever had and the best year a Giants RF ever had who wasnt Mel Ott.

1982 at Mets, tied at 3 in the 9th, 2 on, 2 out, 22 year old Chili Davis hits a two run double off Jesse Orosco, we go up 5-3 and that's the final score.  Davis finished 4th in the rookie of the year race in '82, he was a Giant through 1987.

2003 at Marlins, we came into this one 21-9 on the season, with a man on and two out in the 8th, fomer Marlin Benito Santiago hit a two run homer off Armando Almanza and those would be the final runs of a 4-2 Giants win.  This was Santiago's last of 3 San Francisco seasons, he'll sign with the Royals in the offseason.



2011 home vs. Colorado, down 3-1 with 2 on and 2 out in the 8th, Nate Schierholtz tied the game with a two strike double down the left field line off of Rafael Betancourt.  Schierholtz was the starting RF for most of 2010 and 2011, but really didn't have the bat to hold down the position, he was shipped out a year later in the Pence trade (worked out) and out of the league after 2014.



Walk off 2011 home vs Colorado, same game, now 3-3 in the bottom of the 9th, Freddy Sanchez singles home Cody Ross with the game winner off of Felipe Paulino.  We take it 4-3.  It was Willie Mays's 80th birthday.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

May 5 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 May 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History.

Walkoff 1966 home vs. Dodgers 8-8 in the 10th inning in a game where Koufax didn't get out of the 2nd; one on, two out, (due to an error and passed ball) Willie Davis drops a Jim Ray Hart flyball to allow the winning run.  The day before Mays broke Mel Ott's NL home run mark.

1990 at Montreal, 1-1 in the 8th, Robby Thompson hits a 2 run homer off Dennis Martinez, we go up 3-1 in a game we win 4-1.  Robby's 1990 .299 OBP would be the second worst of his career.

1998 at Marlins, 2-2 in the 8th, Rich Aurilia hits a leadoff homer off of Vic Darensbourg and the Giants go on to win 8-2.  Here are all players with more San Francisco plate appearances than Aurilia:  Mays, McCovey, Bonds, Thompson, Davenport.

2010 at Marlins, a dozen years later and we're in Miami again, up 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth, runners on the corners with two out, Brian Wilson on the mound - he strikes out Wes Helms to win the game.  This was Wilson's career year, 48 saves, 217 ERA+ it was the third best season for a Giants reliever in organizational history.

2014 at Pittsburgh, 5 and a half hours on a Monday night in Pittsburgh, we had come back from an 8-2 deficit to force extras, by the time we hit the 13th inning we had used up the bench, 7 pitchers, we had 20 hits - and with two on and one out, Jared Hughes threw a Jean Machi bunt away, allowing Hunter Pence to score.  We won 11-10 to move our record to 21-11.  Machi went to 5-0 on the season with a 0.53 ERA.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

May 4 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?


I could be wrong, but I think this is the first day that all five moments have come from different decades.  Here are the top 5 moments in San Francisco Giants history from May 4.

1959 at Cincinnati, down 3-2, 2 outs in the 9th inning, bases loaded - Jimmy Davenport doubles everybody home off Bob Purkey, we go up 5-3 and win the game 6-5.  Davenport was a Giant lifer; never played for any other big league club, was with the organization following retirement, spent years as the starting third baseman - and he just didn't have a ton of value other than an ability to stay in the lineup. He had an OPS+ of 74 in '59

Walk off 1964 home vs Houston, we only had 6 hits headed to the bottom of the 12th inning, tied at 2, Chuck Hiller doubles home Matty Alou off of Hal Woodeshick for the game winner.  Hiller had been the starting second baseman the previous two seasons, but his bat couldn't keep him in the lineup, he only had a couple hundred plate appearances in '64 and hit a buck eighty.

Walk off 1997 home vs Reds, down 1-0 in the tenth, the Reds scored on an error in the top half, two out, bases loaded, Glenallen Hill blooped a single to right off of Jeff Brantley to plate two and win the game. Brantley was a Giants farmhand, drafted in '85, up in '88, All Star in '90 and off as a free agent in '93.  He pitched more than double the number of innings in San Francisco as any other stop.

2007 home vs Phillies, Giants down 2-0 in the 7th, 2 out and the bases loaded for Eliezer Alfonzo, who cleared them with a double off Jamie Moyer.  We won the game 6-2. Alfonzo was the Giants starting catcher the year before but only had 67 plate appearances as a backup in '07.

Walk off 2013 home vs Dodgers, we walked off LA with a Posey homer the night before to move to 17-11 on the season, we get them again here.  9-9 with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning - an 0-2 count to, of all people, Guillermo Quiroz who then hit a line drive home run to left field off of Brandon League to send everyone home happy.  Quiroz was near the end of a 10 year big league career when he came to San Francisco in 2013.  He had a total of 16 hits as a Giant, this was the only home run.


See you tomorrow. Go Giants!

May 3 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 May 3 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1968 home vs Cardinals, how about this - Giants down 4-2 in the 9th, 2 on, 2 out, Steve Carlton vs. Willie McCovey - McCovey singles to score both runs and tie the game...

Walk off 1968 home vs. Cardinals...same game...next batter, following a McCovey steal of second, Willie Mays singles him home to win the game.  Mays was a 6 and a half win player in '68 which only gave him his 14th best ever season.

Walk off 2009 home vs Rockies, scoreless, bottom of the tenth, Rich Aurilia singles home Steve Holm (SteveHolm!) off of Manny Corpas to win it for the good guys.  This is it for the 37 year old Aurilia, he retires at season's end.

2011 at Mets, tied at 6 in the 9th, Aubrey Huff (in an 0-20 slump) leads off with a homer off Taylor Buchholz, that's the final run of a 7-6 win.  Huff's career year was the season before in helping the Giants win their first San Francisco World Series, this was the hangover year, he was hitting .183 on this date and was out of the league after the following season.



Walk off 2013 home vs Dodgers, this was a Kershaw game so the Giants only had one run headed to the bottom of the 9th, fortunately, LA had the same, Buster Posey, who was responsible for the first run, led off with a game winning homer off Ronald Belisario.  Through 2016, this was Posey's fifth best season.  Posey's got 37 WAR and a 136 OPS+ through 2016.  He's 30, he's got 3700 plate appearances.  That's about half of Johnny Bench's career WAR in fewer than half of Bench's career plate appearances.  If the back half of Posey's career equals his front half, he'll be the greatest catcher in baseball history.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

2017 at Dodgers, 1-1 in the 11th, Jeff Samardzija struck out 11 in 8 innings, allowing only 3 hits on a night where the Dodgers paid tribute to the retired Vin Scully, but we left the bases loaded in the 10th inning and got to the 11th tied at 1.  Gorkys Hernandez laced a double to left, scoring Joe Panik, we added two more and won the game 2-1.  Hernandez has a career OBP of .265, making him an unorthodox (brutal) choice as a leadoff hitter for a team that at this date had the worst run differential in all of baseball. This was the Giants first road series victory of the season.  

See you today (well, not really, because it's an off day) Go Giants!

May 2 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 May 2 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

1965 at Dodgers 2-2 in the 10th, Willie McCovey hits his second homer of the game, this one off Bob Miller, we win it 4-2.  Those were homers 130, 131 in McCovey's career.  

Walk off 1975 home vs. Astros, 8th inning 1-1, 2 out, runners on the corners, Ed Goodson doubled them both home off of Tom Griffin to put us up 3-1.  We'd go on to win 5-4.  Goodson came up through the system, picked up a few hundred plate appearances as the starting third baseman in '73.  He was near the end of the Giants run; a month and a half later we dealt him to Atlanta.

Walk off 1993 home vs Expos, the Giants were 16-9 and looking to sweep the Expos on a Sunday at the Stick, with two out Barry Bonds singled home Willie McGee off Jeff Fassero for the win.  This, of course, was Barry's first year in San Francisco, he had an OPS+ of 206.  The top 11 seasons for left fielders in organization history are all Bonds seasons - this is the 5th best.  

Walk off 1995 home vs Dodgers, 5 hours at the Stick. 14 scoreless innings.  14.  In the top of the 15th, LA scored 3 off Mark Dewey.  With 2 outs and nobody on in the bottom of the 15th, we got a couple of baserunners and Robby Thompson hit a 3 run homer off Greg Hansell to tie the score.  Bonds singled - and then Matt Williams doubled him home to win the game. This was Hideo Nomo's big league debut.  Thompson has more plate appearances than any second baseman in San Francisco history by over a thousand.

Walk off 2004 home vs Marlins, The Giants scored 5 in the second, but seven San Francisco pitchers later and it was 8-8 in the bottom of the 11th, 2 on, 1 out, a Yorvit Torrealba double off Matt Perisho scores Bonds to win the game.  We signed Torrealba when he was 15, he got 75 plate appearances in the low minors at 16 years old in '95.  Nine years later he's walking off the Marlins.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!