June 13 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 June 13 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1959 at Philadelphia, we're a game out, up 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, the Phillies put the first two on, but Johnny Antonelli gets Wally Post in a line drive 4-6 double play, he strikes out the next batter and we take the game.  Antonelli came over with the club from New York (we traded Bobby Thomson for him) he finished third in the MVP race in '54, 21-7, ERA+ of 178 and won two games in the World Series, through 2016 thats the 30th best year for a pitcher in franchise history.  He had a good year in '59, 19 wins, a 123 ERA+, and then after next season he'd be gone, moved with Willie Kirkland to Cleveland for Harvey Kuenn. Antonelli never enjoyed playing in San Francisco, particularly in Seals Stadium, and was getting booed by the fans by year's end.

1961 home vs. Dodgers, we're 2 games off the lead, right behind LA, both of us chasing the Reds, down 3-2 with one out and one on in the 7th, Willie Mays hits a 2 run homer off of Stan Williams, that holds up, we win 4-3.  It's #291 for Mays.

Walk off 1963 home vs. Cubs, 60 games into the season in a flat tie for first place in the National League, bottom of the 10th, 1-1, Willie Mays hits the game winning homer off of Dick Ellsworth.  It's homer #380 for Mays, his third career walk off - the first two were also in extra innings.  It's the 17th walk off home run in San Francisco history.

1967 at Houston, down 5 in the NL standings, 2-2 with 2 out in the tenth, Willie Mays hits a grand slam off of Barry Latman, 6-2 is the final score.  Mays hit 8 grand slams in his career, this is his 7th, the only one in extra innings.  June 13 meant a lot of Wilie Mays.

1986 at Houston, 2nd place Giants are 3 behind the first place Astros after losing the first game of the series the night before, the Astros only had 3 hits, but still led 1-0 coming to the 9th inning (it was a Mike Scott game) with 2 on and 1 out Dave Smith came on to face Chili Davis, he hit a 3 run homer and we won the game 3-1.  Chili hit 350 homers in his career, this was his 70th.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

June 12 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Top 5 June 12 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1960 home vs Braves, down a game in the NL standings, big Sunday crowd, nearly 40,000 paid for a 4 hour game against Milwaukee, it was 4-4 with 2 out in the 6th when Orlando Cepeda cleared the bases with a double off of Ken MacKenzie.  We'd go on to win the game 16-7. In '64, Alvin Dark, apparently believing he was off the record, told Newsday that the Giants had an excess of minority players, a year later we moved Cepeda to the Cardinals. We just brutalized the McCovey/Cepeda thing, we tried to play one in left and then the other - Cepeda got a handful of starts at third, McCovey sat against left handed pitchers so Cepeda could play first.

1971 at Mets, 17 games over .500 with a 7 game lead in the west (this was the third season the leagues were split into divisions) down 1-0 in the 6th, Chris Speier doubled home 2 off of Ray Sadecki, we'd win the game 5-1.  Sadecki, of course, was the return from the Cardinals for Cepeda in '66, he lost 18 games in '68 and we moved him to the Mets after the '69 season for Bob Heise.  Yes, we turned Orlando Cepeda into Bob Heise.

2003 at White Sox, 16 games over .500 with a 4 game lead in the west, we came into the 9th down 4-2 but a Bonds homer tied the score, it's now 4-4 with the bases loaded and Rich Aurilia pinch hits a grand slam off of Damaso Marte, after 9 seasons, this is the last year of Aurilia's first Giants stint, he heads to Seattle in 2004.  This was his second of 3 career grand slams.

2004 at Baltimore, we're 2.5 out of first in the west, this is the first half of a doubleheader (we lose game 2) in front of nearly 50,000 paid on a Saturday at Camden Yards, bottom of the 9th in a 5-5 game, Orioles have the bases loaded with just one out - Matt Herges facing Miguel Tejada, he gets him to go 1-2-3 to end the inning. Herges was a deadline deal the year before with the Padres, coming over for Clay Hensley, and he was terrific, a 183 ERA+ in 70 games down the stretch.  But that's it, he was miscast as our closer in '04 and we dumped him on the Diamondbacks just about a year after this game.

2004 at Baltimore, same game, still 5-5 in the 11th, AJ Pierzynski (booo, booo, booooooo) homers off Jorge Julio to put us up 6-5 and we'd win it 9-6.  Pierzynski had 11 homers in his one year in San Francisco and hit into a league leading 27 double plays.  Bonds hit homer #675 in this one.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

June 11 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 June 11 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1971 at Mets, Giants 16 over .500 with a 7 game lead, 52,000 paid for a Friday night at Shea, 2-2 in the 10th, Willie Mays facing Tug McGraw - who throws a wild pitch that scores Bob Aspromonte all the way from second. We win the game 3-2.

1985 at Atlanta, we had lost 5 straight and were 12.5 off the lead, so naturally we played a nearly 5 hour 18 inning game in front of 9,000 paid in Atlanta.  4-4 in the 18th, 2 out, Bob Brenly singles home David Green off of Gene Garber, we'd keep that 5-4 lead for the win.  9 seasons and almost 3000 plate appearances as a Giant, many as the starting catcher - through 2016 he's the 35th greatest San Francisco Giant of all time.  On the same day the Phillies scored 26 against the Mets.

1987 home vs. Padres, a game out of first, fewer than 7000 paid at the Stick on a Thursday night, we only got 3 hits, but had a 1-0 lead in the 9th - Kelly Downs looking for the complete game, one out, runners on the corners, he gets Randy Ready to go 6-4-3 and we move into a first place tie.  Downs was our ace in '87 and, although he'd finish with only a 107 ERA+, had been good to this point in the season - this was his 4th complete game and third shutout in a dozen starts, his ERA dropped to 2.99. We're less than a month away from the big Kevin Mitchell trade with the Padres.

1989 home vs. Padres, a game out of first, it's the 62nd game of the season, 42,000 paid at the Stick on a Sunday afternoon, down 1-0 in the 9th, Greg Litton homers off of Dennis Rasmussen to the the score.  When Litton was 19 we picked him 10th overall in the January draft in '84.  5 years later he's a rookie utilityman hitting this home run.  This is his 11th big league game and first home run.

Walk off 1989 home vs Padres, same game, a man on with two out in the 12th, still a 1-1 game, Will Clark walks them off with a game winning 2 run homer off of Mark Davis. It's Will's career season, he had a 175 OPS+ and 9 WAR, it's the best season for a first baseman in franchise history.  It's his 5th career walk off.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

June 10 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 June 10 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1964 home vs. Cards, game one of a doubleheader, the Giants up a game in the standings, scoreless with 2 out in the 6th, Willie McCovey hits a 2 run homer off of Bob Gibson - we take the game 3-0.  McCovey hit Gibson pretty well, 7 homers, a .290 BA, 851 OPS.  He had more plate appearances against Gibson than any other pitcher he ever faced outside of Drysdale.  This was the 117th homer of his career.

1970 home vs. Pirates, the Giants are 16 back, fewer than 4000 paid on a Wednesday afternoon at the Stick.  We were getting two hit by Bob Moose when, with one out in the 8th inning of a 2-2 game, Willie Mays homered - we'd win the game 4-2.  It's homer #614 for Mays.

1983 at Atlanta, game one of a Friday night doubleheader, the Giants are 9.5 games out, 4-4 in the 10th, runners on the corners - Jack Clark drives them both home with a double off of Steve Bedrosian.  6-4 would be the final score.  Clark's 125 OPS+ in '83 was his lowest since he was 21 years old in '77.



1987 at Cincinnati, the Giants in 2nd place, 2 games behind the first place Reds - with the score 4-4 in the 8th Candy Maldonado doubled home Chris Speier off of Ron Robinson, we'd tack on 4 more and win it 9-4.  This had been an extraordinarily tight race, the Giants had neither been more than 3 games in front or behind in the west to this point, over a third of the way through the season.

Walk off 2011 home vs Reds, nearly a quarter century later we're at home for the Reds, this time we're a game up in the West, 2-2 with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th, Nate Schierholtz singles home Andres Torres off of Logan Ondrusek and we take the ballgame.  In 6 Giants, seasons, this is the only one where Schierholtz had more than 320 plate appearances, he was the primary RF in '11.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

June 9 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

What is this all about?

Yesterday

Here are the top 5 June 9 moments in San Francisco Giants history

Walk off 1968 home vs. Mets, three and a half games out of first headed to a Sunday doubleheader against the Mets, 4-4 in the 9th inning of game one, McCovey's just tied it with a single, there are two on and two out when Willie Mays singles off Cal Koonce to score Ron Hunt with the winning run (we'd take the second game also).  It's Mays's 9th San Francisco walk off hit.  Only a six and a half WAR season for Mays, his 14th best as a Giant.

1975 home vs. Mets,  4-4 in the 9th inning, down 4-2 with two on and two out, Willie Montanez singles off Jerry Koosman, scoring two (the second coming on a fielding error) and it's tied at 4.

Walk off 1975 home vs. Mets, same game, next batter, Bruce Miller singles home Montanez with the winning run.  We got Miller out of the Angels farm system for Al Gallagher in early '73, He got about 600 not particularly impactful plate appearances in four Giants seasons, the only team he ever played for.

Walk off 1984 home vs Astros, we're 18 under .500, 14 games out of first, the season's already over, we are down 5-3 with two on and two out in the bottom of the 9th - Joel Youngblood hits a 3 run homer off Bill Dawley for one of the few bright spots of the season.  How many similar walk offs in San Francisco history had there been before this?  A homer when we were down 2 runs to win the game?  Leon Wagner did it in '59.  Reggie Smith and Jack Clark both did it in '82.  I think that's the list.   Youngblood was a Giant for six seasons, in '84 he started at third coming off a really good season with the bat in '83 (138 OPS+) he didn't follow that up this year.  He was with the club until signing with the Reds after the '88 season.

1991 at St Louis, we're 10.5 out, but have a 3-2 ninth inning lead, runners on the corners, Jeff Brantley had a 3 ball, no strike count on Todd Zeile - he got the green light and went 5-4-3 to end the game. Brantley's best Giants season, still one of the 10 best seasons for a reliever in franchise history, was the year prior - he closed in '90 but was setting up for Righetti in '91 and then Rod Beck took the closer's job in '92 and Brantley was off to Cincinnati after the '93 season.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!