July 14 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

Here are the top 5 July 14 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1985 at Pittsburgh, it's game 88, we're 17.5 out of first so the season is over, 2-2 in the 5th inning, David Green homers off Rick Rhoden, we win this one 7-3.  It was Green's 2nd homer as a Giant, he only hits 3 more. 11 were arrested from a fight in the stands the night before.  

1991 at Philadelphia, we're 14 games out of first place, which is too many games to be out of first place, we got 22 hits at the Vet on a Sunday afternoon, with 2 out in the third we were down 3-2, Matt Williams hit a 3 run homer off Danny Cox - we win this game 17-5.  11 total bases for Williams here, he hits a second homer and triples.  Meanwhile, Will Clark has 5 hits and 7 RBI.  A good Sunday in Philadelphia, the most runs an opponent ever scored at the Vet.



1994 at Montreal, 7.5 out, coming into Montreal riding a 4 game winning streak, but facing Pedro Martinez and an Expos team that was 21 games over .500.  We were up 3-1 in the 5th when Darryl Strawberry hit a grand slam off Pedro, we're gonna win this one 8-3.  Strawberry played just 29 games with the Giants in '94, had an OPS+ of 110, hit 4 homers, this was his first and his second comes the next day.  It's Strawberry's 6th career grand slam.  Strawberry also singled and doubled in this one, his fifth game as a Giant and what turns out to be his best Giants performance.

2005 at Los Angeles, were 10 games off the lead, 1-1 in the 7th, 2 on, 2 out, Omar Vizquel hits a 3 run homer on an 0-2 pitch.  We're gonna win this one 4-3. Vizquel was a Giant for four years, the first two good enough to hold down the starting shortstop job, the last two pretty abysmal (Vizquel's Giants OPS+ was 75, and while he was still a good fielder, that bat just shouldn't keep you in any lineup).  This was his first year in San Francisco, he was 38, came over as a free agent from Cleveland where he had spent 11 seasons.  He was our shortstop through '08, after which he went to Texas.  Vizquel played until he was 45, his last year was 2012.  This was Vizquel's 68th career homer.

2011 at San Diego - it's game 94, we've got a 3 game lead in the west coming out of the break, we spend 4 hours at Petco, It took a 9th inning Aubrey Huff homer off Heath Bell to get us to extras, now it's the 12th, 1-1, bases loaded with 2 out, Mike Fontenot works a walk against Luke Gregerson to give us a 2-1 lead and we'd go on to win 6-2.  Bell had pitched in 99 games since giving up a home run.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

July 13 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

Here are the top 5 July 13 moments in San Francisco Giants history.  5 different decades.

Walk off 1958 home vs. Braves, second place Giants - first place Braves, we're one game out in our first ever San Francisco season, it's a Sunday afternoon at Seals, with an out in a 5-5 game in the bottom of the 9th, Felipe Alou singles home the game winning run off of Ernie Johnson.  The Giants signed Alou 3 years prior, he comes west with the club and this is his rookie season, in fact - this is Alou's 29th game in the bigs.

Walk off 1967 home vs. Houston, 5 games out, coming back from the break, a McCovey homer in the 9th got us to extras, in the 10th Hal Lanier scored the winning run on a Sonny Jackson error.  It's McCovey's 213th homer, McCovey hit 8 career homers in the bottom of the 9th to either tie the game or put his team ahead.  The next day, Eddie Mathews hits his 500th career homer against us.

1995 home vs. Houston, we're in the midst of a swoon, we were 1.5 back less than two weeks before but now return from the All Star break six games out of first.  We go a dozen innings against the Astros, ending with a Bonds walk off single off of Jim Dougherty to win it 6-5.  Just another run of the mill 170 OPS+ for Bonds in '95.  If you're looking for his decline phase it never comes, Barry never has an OPS+ below 150 once he turns 25.  He leads the majors in OBP as a 42 year old in 2007 and can't find a job in 2008.  

2000 home vs A's, the first year at the new ballpark, we're 3.5 games out of first and hosting Oakland, a Bonds homer had us up 2-1 in the 6th, the A's had the tying run at second - Russ Ortiz got Matt Stairs to fly out deep to left, and then Barry threw out Miguel Tejada trying to tag up and go to to third.  We won the game 4-2.  Ortiz was 21 when we drafted him in '95, he came up in '98 and was moved into the rotation.  This is his worst San Francisco campaign, an ERA+ of 85.  After '02 he was sent to Atlanta for Damian Moss and Merkin Valdez, he won 21 with the Braves in '03 to finish 4th in the Cy Young race and completely fell of the cliff in 2005, he never approached even decency after '04.  Ortiz came back to San Francisco for a dozen inauspicious games in '07 and actually finished his big league career as a Dodger in 2010.



2014 home vs. Diamondbacks, 9 games over .500 and trailing by a half game, a month earlier we had a ten game lead and now that's all gone, Sunday afternoon rubber match against the Snakes, down 1-0 with 2 out in the 5th - Buster Posey hits a grand slam off of Vidal Nuno, we win this one 8-4.  As of this writing Posey has 4 career grand slams, this was his second (Piazza hit 14, so Posey won't catch him).  Madison Bumgarner also hit a grand slam in this one, the first batterymates to hit slams in the same game.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

July 12 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday


Top 5 July 12 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1958 home vs. Braves, 2 games out of first and hosting the first place Braves on a Saturday afternoon in mid July of our first ever San Francisco campaign, we jump all over Spahn, he doesn't get out of the 5th inning, the big blow coming here, up 2-1 in that 5th, Orlando Cepeda hits a 3 run shot off Spahn to put us up 5-1 in a game we'd win 5-3.  We move to 1 game out of first, it is the closest we've been to the lead in a month.  Cepeda killed Spahn - had a lifetime .344 BA with 10 homers.  Along with the 10 he hit against Drysdale these are the most homers Cepeda ever hit against anyone.

1962 at Philadelphia, 26 games over .500 but still half a game out of first place, we start a 3 game series against the Phillies, we're up 5-3 in the bottom of the 9th, but the Phillies have a man on and the tying run at the plate - Stu Miller gets Jacke Davis to go 5-4-3.  Miller had been a Phillie in '56, he came to the Giants in '57 for Jim Hearn. Miller was 28, he hadn't had a good year since his rookie season in '52 - but was instantly good with the Giants, he moved west with the club in '58 and led the league in ERA+ (155).  Miller was a swingman in '58 but came out of the pen almost exclusively in the rest of his Giants career - that career ended after this (not particularly good) season, We sent him and Mike McCormick to Baltimore where he had several very good seasons closing for the Orioles.

1968 at Cincinnati, we're 11 out, tied at 2 with 2 out in the 5th, Jim Ray Hart hits a 3 run homer off Clay Carroll and we go on to win 11-4. Hart hits another homer later in the game, the 133-134th of his career.  Hart was 7-24 lifetime against Carroll, this was his only homer.

1997 at Los Angeles, our 6 game lead in the west had been cut to four after losing the first two games of the series, sold out Dodger Stadium on a Saturday night, down 2-1 with one out in the 9th Mark Lewis and Rick Wilkins go back to back off Todd Worrell to give us a 3-2 lead in a game we'd win 8-5.  Lewis was a bust, the Indians took him 2nd overall in the '88 draft (Andy Benes was first, Robin Ventura 10th) but had a negative career WAR.  This is his one season as a Giant, backing up in the infield, getting some starts in at third.  Wilkins did parts of two seasons in San Francisco as our part time catcher, we got him at the deadline from Houston for Kurt Manwaring the year before and we released him less than 3 weeks after this home run.

2002 home vs. Rockies, we're 88 games in and after walking Colorado off the night before are 2.5 out of first place, Livan Hernandez throws a complete game 4 hitter, the big moment a 2 run Damon Minor homer in the second that broke a scoreless tie.  Minor played in 136 big league games, all as a Giant.  He got a couple hundred plate appearances this season at first base, he was replacement level and never got on a big league field after '04.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

July 11 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

Here are the top 5 July 11 moments in San Francisco Giants history.  Each from a different decade.

Walk off 1958 home vs. Reds, this is game 80 in our inaugural season, we're 2 games out of the lead, we had walk off wins on the 4th, 5th, and 6th - this is the 11th, and this is a 3 and a half hour Friday afternoon game at Seals, 2 on, 1 out in the bottom of the 12th - Orlando Cepeda homers off Hal Jeffcoat to send everyone home. This is the second walk off home run in San Francisco history.  Cepeda is a 20 year old rookie, this is his 17th homer, his first extra innings homer, his first walk off homer.  Cepeda hit 48 career homers against the Reds, he only hit more against the Cubs.  He hit 10 home runs against the Giants.

1969 at Los Angeles, it's game 88 on the season, Marichal beat Sutton the night before, we're 2.5 out, this is a Friday night at Dodger Stadium, 4-4 with 2 out in the 10th, Bobby Bonds drives in two with a single off Jim Brewer, 6-4 is the final score.  The first Giants/Dodgers game was May 3, 1890, as of this writing, the Giants lead the series 1238-1204, although since the move west LA leads San Francisco 533-516. 228 players have played with both franchises.  How many players have played 500+ games with both franchises?  2.  Bill Dahlen and Jeff Kent.  The opposite of that would be Kid Carsey, Bull Durham, and Al Maul who played a total of 7 combined games for the two organizations.  For someone more recent how about Erik Surkamp, 7 games with the Giants and 1 with LA.  How about guys with 10 WAR for both organizations - Dahlen, Kent, Haller, Butler, Stanky, Fitzsimmons, Marquard.

1973 home vs. Cubs, we're 9 over .500 but 5.5 back, 1-1 with 2 out in the 6th, Ed Goodson homers off Milt Pappas, we go on to win the game 7-3.  Goodson played for both Giants and Dodgers, he starts his career in San Francisco, ends it in Los Angeles.

1982 at Montreal, we're a dozen out, 7-7 in the 10th, Milt May homers off Jeff Reardon and we're gonna win it 8-7.  May hit 2 homers that day, the third and final multi-homer game of his career.

2015 home vs. Phillies, it's game 88, we're 5.5 out and trailing 4-3 with 2 out in the 6th, Matt Duffy triples home 2 off of Luis Garcia.  We win it 8-5.  A little over a year later we dealt Duffy to Tampa for Matt Moore.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

July 10 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

What is this all about?

Yesterday

Here are the top 5 July 10 moments in San Francisco Giants history. I think this is the third time that we've had 5 different decades represented.

1960 home vs. Cubs, we're 8.5 out, we're down 3-0 with 2 out in the 7th, Dave Philley pinch hit a 3 run homer off of Don Cardwell to tie the score.  We'd win it 5-3. Philley was 40 years old in 1960; he broke in with the White Sox in '41, he fought in World War II.

Okay, this is good.  In 1941, one of Philley's teammates was Ted Lyons, now Lyons broke in back in '23, he played with Eddie Collins.  Collins broke in back in '06, he played with Monte Cross.  Cross broke in back in 1892 with Baltimore, a 19 year old John McGraw was on that team, so was George Van Haltren, Van Haltren joined the Giants  in '94, where he played with Roger Conner and Monte Ward, who were on the very first Giants team back in 1883.  This is gonna be good....

  

Original Giants Conner and Ward played with Van Haltren.

Van Haltren played with Cross (and McGraw)

Cross played with Collins.

Collins played with Lyons.

Lyons played with Philley.

Philley, on this 1960 team, played with McCovey.

McCovey, in 1980, played with Bob Knepper.

Knepper, in 1990, played with Will and Matt and Robby - and those 3 all played with Barry in '93.

Barry played with Matt Cain in 2007 - and Matt Cain is, at the time of this writing, a current Giant, in 2017.

135 years of Giants baseball.  There you go.

1979 at Montreal, we're 11 games out of first place, this is a 4 hour game on a Tuesday night in Montreal, it's the 13th inning - bases loaded, 2 out, 7-7, Terry Whitfield gets hit by a Woodie Fryman pitch to drive in the go ahead run.  We win 11-7.  Whitefield took over the starting left field job in '78, largely kept it until 1980 although began to give up at bats to Larry Herndon eventually.  We opened the decade with Ken Henderson in left, he kept it until '73 when the job belonged to Gary Matthews, in '77 Darrell Evans spent a year as the left fielder and then the job was Whitfield's.

1983 home vs. Chicago, 10.5 out of first, here's a Sunday doubleheader against the Cubs, game one is 3 and a half hours long, Joel Youngblood broke an 8-8 tie with a run scoring single off of Bill Campbell in the 8th.  We won the game 10-8.  This was Youngblood's first season in San Francisco, he played a ton as a superutility guy in '83 and it was by far his best Giants season with the bat, he had a 138 OPS+.  Youngblood spends 6 years in San Francisco, playing more than 600 games as a Giant.

Walk off 1994 home vs. Philadelphia, as it turns out, there's only a month left in the season, we're 8.5 out and looking for a four game sweep of the Phillies, this is our last walk off win of the year, almost 50,000 paid at the Stick for this Sunday afternoon, it took a Darren Lewis 9th inning homer to send the game into extra innings - and in the bottom of the 10th, the score 1-1, Jeff Reed plated Davey Martinez with a 2 out single off Doug Jones. Reed spend 3 years as our backup catcher, this is the second - he was good enough in '93 and '95, but this season was a catastrophe, he hit .175, had an OPS+ of 32.  It's the worst season of his 17 year career.

2004 home vs. Diamonbacks, it's game 88 on the year, we're half a game out of first place, on May 16 we were 8 games out, 6 weeks later we were 3 games up, and this is 2 and a half weeks after that, scoreles with 2 out in the 5th, JT Snow hits a 2 run homer off of Brandon Webb.  We win the game 3-1.  Unfortunately, we never make up that half game, this is as close as we'll get the rest of the way. JT Snow owned Brandon Webb - 10 hits in 25 at bats, that's a .400 BA, 3 of those hits were homers, Snow had a 1.420 lifetime OPS against Webb.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!