August 7 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

Here are the top 5 August 7 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1966 at Cubs, it's game 112, we're trying to avoid getting swept at Wrigley, 17 over .500 and one game off the lead. we're down 2-0 with 2 out in the 3rd, Willie Mays hits a 3 run homer off of Ken Holtzman, we win this one 9-6. It's homer #530 for Mays, 130 still to go.  Mays hit 54 homers at Wrigley.  This is one of 253 go ahead homers Mays hit in his career.

1968 home vs. Phillies, we're 15 out, 3-3 in the 8th, Willie McCovey leads off with a homer off of Dick Hall and that turns out to be the game winner.  This was McCovey's second homer of the game, #259-60 for his career, another 260 still to go. McCovey had 44 multihomer games in his career.  This is one of McCovey's 189 go ahead homers.

1996 home vs. Reds, we're 13 out, we've dropped 4 off the lead since the 28th and are now probably playing out the string. Mark Gardner throws a complete game, gives up 7 hits, the big blow coming at 2-2 in the 3rd, Rick Wilkins singled home the go ahead run off of Keith Jarvis.  We win it 9-2. Gardner was taken in the 8th round of the '85 draft by the Expos (we took Trevor Wilson six spots prior) out of Fresno St, Gardner's in the minors until age 27, but a year later, in 1990, he's in the Expos rotation. From Montreal he goes to Kansas City, from Kansas City to Florida.  This is his first year in San Francisco, where he spends the rest of his career and, as of 2017, is currently a coach. Gardner was serviceable as a back of the rotation starter, career Giants ERA+ of 88 in in just under a thousand innings pitched, most of them in the rotation.  Gardner finished up after the '01 season.



2001 at Cincinnati, on July 25 we were 6.5 games back, but now only one game separates us from first place as we open a series in Cincinnati (and we have a half game WC deficit) it's 3-3 in the 11th inning when Barry Bonds homers off of Danny Graves.  We win it 9-3.  Homer #542 for Bonds, and in this record breaking season, homer #48 on the year. (6 years later on this same date Bonds broke Aaron's career record) Here are all 73 victims.

1. Woody Williams
2. Adam Eaton
3. Jamey Wright
4. Jimmy Haynes
5. David Weathers
6. Terry Adams
7. Chan Ho Park
8. Jimmy Haynes Again
9. Jim Brower
10. Scott Sullivan
11. Manny Aybar
12. Todd Ritchie
13. Jimmy Anderson
14. Bruce Chen
15 Steve Trachsel
16. Chuck Smith
17. He Pitched 8 Games as a Giant 10 Years Prior, Mike Remlinger
18. Odalis Perez
19. Jose Cabrera
20. Jason Marquis
21. Giant for the First 6 Seasons of His Career and Former Bonds Teammate John Burkett
22. Mike Remlinger Again
23. Cowardly Grifter Curt Schilling
24. Russ Springer
25. John Thomson
26. His Old Pirate Teammate Denny Neagle
27. Robert Ellis
28. 4 Innings Later Robert Ellis
29. Shawn Chacon
30. Bobby Jones
31. I Do Not Remember Wascar Serrano
32. Brian Lawrence
33. He Pitched a Total of 11 Games for the Giants in 2 Separate Stints Pat Rapp
34. Lou Pote
35. Mark Mulder
36. 5 Innings Later Mark Mulder
37. Not the Outfielder Adam Eaton
38. Rodney Myers
39. The Late Darryl Kile
40. Paul Abbott
41. Mike Hampton
42. Only One Inning Later Mike Hampton
43. Professional Bigot Curt Schilling
44. Screw You One Inning Later Curt Schilling
45. Brian Anderson
46. Joe Beimel
47. Nelson Figueroa
48. The One on August 7 Against Danny Graves
49. Scott Winchester
50. I Just Remembered Wascar Serrano But He's Not the One Who Gave Up This Homer, That Would Have Been Joe Borowski
51. Ricky Bones
52. AJ Burnett
53. Vic Darensbourg
54. Jason Marquis
55. Graeme Lloyd
56. Kevin Appier
57. John Thomson Again
58. Jason Jennings
59. Miguel Batista
60. Albie Lopez
61. Scott Elarton, 488 Feet, Barry's Longest of the Season
62. 4 Innings Later Scott Elarton
63. Todd Belitz
64. Wade Miller
65. Jason Middlebrook
66. 2 Innings Later Jason Middlebrook
67. Not that James Baldwin
68. Jason Middlebrook Should Have Seen this Coming
69. Chuck McElroy
70. Wilfredo Rodriguez
71. Chan Ho Park
72. 2 Innings Later Chan Ho Park
73. Dennis Springer

2012 at St Louis, it's game 110 on the season and we're 1/2 up in the West, up 4-2 in the 9th, one on, nobody out, Matt Carpenter goes 1-6-3 against Jeremy Affeldt and we're gonna win it 4-2. The 33 year old lefty Affeldt is in the middle of a 7 year 122 ERA+ Giants run.  63 Innings Pitched in '12, his biggest workload since '08 as a Red.

See you tomorrow. Go Giants!

August 6 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

What is this all about?

Yesterday

Here are the top 5 August 6 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1968 home vs. Phillies, we're 16 out, the season's over, 6200 paid at the Stick on a Tuesday night, Gaylord throws a 3 hit complete game, it's 1-1 in the 8th, Bobby Bonds singles home the go ahead run off of Larry Jackson, we go on to win it 4-1.  Through 2016 Perry is the 9th greatest San Francisco Giant of all time.  He spent the first 10 years of his career in San Francisco before we shipped a 33 year old Perry to the Indians for Sam McDowell after the '71 season.  It was a mistake, the best ERA+ season of his career was '72, the second best was '74. Gaylord moved around after leaving Cleveland, his last stop was Kansas City in '83.

Walk off 1982 home vs. Astros, on the 31st we were 13 back but just a week later it's down to 10 (still too many, of course, but we've won 3 straight coming into this one) 8400 paid on a Friday night at the Stick, we're down 6-5 in the bottom of the 9th, Reggie Smith ties it with a homer off Dave Smith and a few batters later Darrell Evans wins it with a run scoring single off of former Giant Randy Moffitt.  Smith earlier homered off of Nolan Ryan and had 4 hits on the night.  Career homers 306-7 for Smith, he hits 7 more in his career.

Walk off 1986 home vs. Reds, On July 20 we were tied for first - but now we're five games back, trying to avoid a sweep from the Reds, we go 14 innings on a Wednesday afternoon at the Stick, Vida goes for the good guys - 8 innings, 3 hits, it ends on a two out Mike Aldrete run scoring pinch single off of Carl Willis in the 14th, we take it 2-1.  Aldrete was a local, from Carmel, went to Stanford, we drafted him in the 7th round in '83.  This is his rookie year, Aldrete backs up at first and the OF and is good, has a 110 OPS+ (the next year's the best of his career, 131 OPS+ in over 400 PA) in '88 he pushes Jeff Leonard out of a job, Aldrete takes over in left, Leonard is sent to Milwaukee during the season, Aldrete's bat doesn't reach those 1987 heights though and he winds up getting dealt after the season to the Expos for Tracy Jones. Aldrete goes on to have a 10 year career in the majors, never again playing a hundred games in a season, never getting another real chance to start.  He finishes his career in '96 as a Yankee.

1993 home vs. Astros, look, it's game 110 and we have an 8.5 game lead - what could possibly go wrong?  We're 73-36 for the love of Pete.  Up 4-3 with 1 out and 2 on in the 9th, Rod Beck strikes out Andujar Cedeno and gets former Giant Kevin Bass to fly to center to end the game. Oakland drafted a 17 year old Beck in the 13th round in '86 out of high school in Van Nuys (the Rangers drafted future Giant Rey Sanchez 8 picks prior). We got him out of their system in '88, he came up in '91 and started closing in '92.  Beck smoked guys in these first couple of years, an ERA+ of 190 in '92 and then 181 in '93. Beck's '93 is the 16th best season for a reliever in franchise history (and '92 is 21st).

2002 home vs. Cubs, it's game 112, on July 21 we were a game out of first - but that was two weeks ago and now the deficit is 7.  We are still 2.5 games up for the WC however, so it's nearing time to turn our attentions to that race.  Starting a homestand against the Cubs on a Tuesday night, we're up 11-10 (having taken the lead in the 8th on a throwing error by the Cubs third baseman - Bill Mueller - that scored 2 runs, a month from now we get Mueller back from Chicago) but they've got the bases loaded with 1 out against Robb Nen - Nen strikes out Alex Gonzalez, then gets Joe Girardi to ground to short to preserve the win.  He's only 32 and he's got a 177 ERA+ but this is the end of Nen's career - he has 14 saves left to earn as a big leaguer.  Here's a tale of two Cubs against Nen - Nen owned Mark Grace, 3 hits in 24 AB, no extra base hits; on the other hand, here's Sammy Sosa - 8 hits in 19 AB, 3 homers and a 1.450 OPS.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

August 5 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

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

1959 home vs. Braves, the second San Francisco Giants are in a dead tie for first in the National League with less than 50 games remaining in what has been a nip and tuck first 2/3 of the baseball season.  We're tied with these Braves; the Dodgers are only half a game back; Warren Spahn beat us to open the series the night before. So, it's a big game in an exciting season on a Wednesday afternoon at Seals.  Jack Sanford throws a complete game, it's 1-1 in the bottom of the 8th, 2 out, (which side has Willie Mays again?) Mays doubles in the go ahead run off of Bob Buhl and we win 4-1.  Sanford signed with the Phillies when he was 19 in '48, spent 9 years in the minors, cup of coffee in '56 and then ten years after becoming a pro ballplayer was the NL Rookie of the Year in 1957, winning 19 games with a 124 ERA+ as a 28 year old rookie.  This is his first year as a Giant, we got him in the offseason for Ruben Gomez and Valmy Thomas.  He spends 7 years in San Francisco, this is the best, with a 120 ERA+, 3 years from now he wins 24 games and finishes second in the Cy Young vote. Through 2016 Sanford is the 38th greatest San Francisco Giant of all time.

1969 at Philadelphia, on July 3 we were 6.5 out, now we go to Philadelphia for a Tuesday doubleheader with a half game lead.  Game One, 1-1 in the 5th, Dave Marshall hits a 3 run homer off of John Boozer.  We win it 6-2 and then take the back half as well.  Last season of 3 as a backup OF with the Giants for Marshall.  This is his third, and final, Giants home run.  He'll hit 13 homers with the Mets, 2 against us.

1984 at Atlanta, 22 games out of first, let's just get to the end of the season, down 4-3 with an out in the 9th, bases loaded, Jeffrey Leonard hits a grand slam off of Donnie Moore (for whom things would get worse). We win it 7-4. 8 seasons in San Francisco for Hac, half of them as the starting LF, a career Giants OPS+ of 111. 144 career homers for Leonard, a half dozen grand slams.  This was his 3rd. You know who Leonard hit?  Carlton.  15 hits in 48 AB, .910 OPS.  On the other hand, here he is against Welch, 11 of 56, .501 OPS.

1997 at Cincinnati, a month before we were up 6, but coming into this one our lead is down to 1 and a half games, 2-2 in the 8th, bases loaded with 2 out, Bill Mueller triples home everybody off of Turk Wendell. We drafted Mueller in the 15th round in '93; he easily had the best career from that round (best career from the 14th, Keith Foulke, 13th, young Gary Matthews, 12th, Alex Cora, you've gotta go back to the 10th to find a player as good as Mueller, the Braves took Kevin Millwood). Mueller was better in Boston than San Francisco, earned the same WAR in half the time.



2009 at Houston, it's game 108, we're in it, 7 out of the lead and first in the WC race, looking for our 60th win on the season, 3-3 in top of the 6th, bases loaded, Eli Whiteside does what...hits a what...a grand slam off of Brian Moehler.  We win this one 10-6.  If you think maybe Eli Whiteside didn't hit a ton of grand slams in his career, that would make sense.  In his six seasons, the middle 4 of which were as a backup Giants catcher, Whiteside hit a total of 10 homers.  This was his only grand slam - this was his first homer period in the bigs.  All of Whiteside's career homers were with us.

See you tomorrow. Go Giants!

August 4 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

Here are the top 5 August 4 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1960 at Philadelphia, the third San Francisco team is 7 out on game 99, still in the race but we've been walked off by the Phillies in back to back games.  We're down 7-6 with 2 out in the 7th, Willie McCovey triples home 2 off of Jim Owens.  We win this game 8-7 but can't gain any ground on the lead and never get closer than 7 the rest of the way.  McCovey had 46 triples in his 22 year big league career, 45 of them with the Giants.  This was his 126th big league game and his 8th triple.

1963 at Cubs, it's game 110, back on July 20 we were 10 back, but come into this one 4.5 out and we are in this race. 1-1 in the 10th, Willie Mays homers off of Lindy McDaniel; this is a 175 OPS+ 10.5 WAR season for Mays, the third best season of his career.  Mays won 2 MVP Awards, which seems a little light, he had 11 seasons of 8+ WAR which are MVP quality seasons, let's take a look at how many he should have won.

1954 - won MVP, 9.9 WAR, he was about a win and a half better than Robin Roberts, Mays deserved the award.
1955 - finished 4th, 9.2 WAR, Campanella won, he had 6 WAR, that's not close. Snider finished 2nd, he was about a win and a half less than Mays, that's not close. Banks finished 3rd, now he had 8.25 WAR, still shy of Mays but a Banks vote is reasonable.  No one else is close, Mays should have won the MVP in '55.
1957 - finished 4th, 8.45 WAR, Aaron won, he was just shy of an 8 WAR season, Musial finished second, he wasn't close, about 6 and a half WAR, Schoendienst was third, he was about a win why of Musial - Eddie Mathews (finished 8th) is actually right there with Aaron, a little more than half a win short of Mays.  Mays should have won this also, the Aaron vote isn't terrible, but Mays had the better year.  He should have 3 MVP Awards before the move to San Francisco.
1958 - finished 2nd, 9.6 WAR, Banks won, Banks was terrific, his WAR is 9.55 - that's a dead tie, it should have been a closer race than it was (Banks got 16 first place votes, Mays got 3) but this is a coin flip vote and Banks was a deserving winner.
1960 - finished 3rd, 8.5 WAR, Dick Groat not only won but the only other guys to get any first place votes were also Pirates (Hoak, Clemente). Groat was nearly 2 wins shy of Mays, that's not close. Don Hoak finished second, he was a 5 WAR player, come on 1960 writers, get with it. Banks finished 4th, he had an 8 WAR season, so he was a reasonable vote, if not quite as good as Mays. Mathews and Ernie Broglio but had 7+ WAR seasons.  So look - it's Mays again, this should be his 4th MVP Award and I'm being generous by not giving him '58.
1961 - finished 6th, 8.25 WAR, Frank Robinson won, he was about half a win short of Mays, it's not a lot, but Mays was better.  Cepeda was second, he was two wins short of Mays.  Pinson was third, we was a couple wins short as well.  Clemente was 4th, and his WAR was about 5, just not in the same universe as Mays.  Joey Jay was 5th, and his WAR was half of Mays's.  Half.  You know who had the same WAR as Mays? Ken Boyer, 8.25.  He finished 7th.  You know who was better?  Aaron.  8.8 WAR even though he finished 9th.  He's who got screwed in '61.
1962 - finished 2nd, 9.9 WAR, Maury Wills won, he had 5 WAR, it's an embarrassing vote.  Frank had a terrific year, 8.9 WAR, but Mays is easily the best player in '62 and should have received his 5th MVP Award.
1963 - finished 5th, 10.5 WAR, come on baseball writers, a 10 WAR season finishes 5th in the MVP race? Koufax won, he was deserving, a 10.25 WAR, you can't feel badly about giving him the Award, but the way I approach is the MVP is that, everything being equal, you go with the position player, as the Cy Young is an award that exists.  Dick Groat was second, shouldn't have been.  Aaron was third, had an 8+ WAR season, but that's not close. Dick Ellsworth had a 9 WAR season and finished 18th, such a disaster by the writers.  This should have been Mays's 6th MVP Award.
1964 - finished 6th, 10.95 WAR, the baseball writers are missing the show, Boyer won, Callison second, Groat third, none of them close.  Santo had a terrific year, 9.25 WAR, he finished 8th; Dick Allen had 8.8 WAR but even that's not close.  No one's close.  This is Mays's 7th MVP Award.
1965 - finished first, had 10.95 WAR.  Mays won and should have won.  MVP Award #8.
1966 - finished 3rd, 8.4 WAR, Clemente won and shouldn't have, but Mays should have been behind Santo, Santo should have been behind Marichal, and they all should have been behind Koufax.

So, that's it.  Mays won 2 MVPs and should have won 8 (or maybe 9, but we'll say 8).



1964 at Mets, it's game 107, we're 2 games out of first, so right in the thick of it as we open up a series in New York. It goes 14, 3-3, Jim Davenport singles in what turns out to be the winning run off of Galen Cisco.  Gaylord went 10 in this one. We move a game and a half out and never get closer than that.  Broadcast of the game on WOR in New York was interrupted for the LBJ address to the nation explaining the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Walk off 1973 home vs. Dodgers, we were 5 out on the 28th, but have lost 4 of 5 so are now 7.5 out here for game 109. Saturday afternoon at the Stick, bottom of the 11th, 2-2, Tito Fuentes homers off Jim Brewer to win it for the good guys.  Fuentes hit 45 career home runs, this is his only walk off.

2014 at Mets, on June 8 we were 10 up, as recently as July 23 we were 2.5 up, but here we are in game 113 two games out of first place (although we still have the second best record in the NL) 3-3 with two out in the 9th, Pablo Sandoval doubles home Gregor Blanco off of Jenrry Mejia and 4-3 will be the final score.  Sandoval signed at 16 years old, made the club at 21 and the next year took over as the starting third baseman.  He largely kept that job through this season; Sandoval was a career 123 OPS+ bat with the Giants.  He signed with the Sox and was a disaster, getting released during the 2017 season and returning to the Giants organization.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

August 3 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

What is this all about?

Yesterday

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

Walk off 1978 home vs. Dodgers, it's game 108, we're 20 games over .500, a half game up in the West on the Reds and starting a series against the third place Dodgers.  42,000 paid for a Thursday night game at the Stick. With 2 outs in the top of the 9th, Lee Lacy tied the score with an inside the park home run when Larry Herndon and Jack Clark collided in the outfield (probably, it should have been called a catch by Herndon).  Now it's 4-4 in the bottom half, Darrell Evans singles home Terry Whitfield off of Terry Forster to send everyone home.  We were a game up at the end of the day; it had been seven years since we had spent a day in first place after the All Star break.   McCovey hit homer #504.

1982 at Atlanta, we're 13 out, playing out the string...or so it would appear...we're about to go on a 10 game winning streak that's going to bring us all the way to 4 games out of first, this is win number one. Down 3-2 in the 9th, no reason to think at all anything was about to happen in 1982 - when Tom O'Malley hit a 2 run homer off Gene Garber. We win it 6-3. We drafted O'Malley in the 16th round in '79 as a high school second baseman from Pennsylvania. 2 picks prior the Pirates took Ron Wotus out of a Connecticut high school; as of this writing he's spent nearly two decades as a Giants coach.  This is O'Malley's rookie year and the best year of his career with the bat (102 OPS+). We decide to go with him at third base, pushing Darrell Evans to a backup role and then over to first base in '83. It never really takes and in early '84 we send him to the White Sox for nobody.  O'Malley finishes his career as a Met in 1990. O'Malley hit only 13 career homers, this was the 2nd (he hits his last homer against us, off Scott Garrelts, 8 years and two weeks later).




1993 at San Diego - what's our record?  It's 71-35, holy cow this is a good club.  We're 7.5 games up in the West...now, that's actually down, on July 22 we were 10 up, but c'mon, stop worrying.  Here, we're down 7-5 with 2 out in the 7th, that's not Will Clark's fault, he hit a 3 run homer in the 5th - and he's up again in this spot, against former teammate Mark Davis, and he ties the game with a 2 run triple. It's a 6 RBI night for the Thrill.  We're gonna win this game 12-7.  Here are Clark's career numbers against Davis: 8 for 17, 1.471 OPS.  Everyone knows Clark's homer off Nolan Ryan in his first game - he kept hitting Ryan, 12 for 36, 6 homers, career OPS of 1.274. How about Will vs. Roger Clemens? 8 for 20. 1.406 OPS.

1999 at Arizona, it's game 107, we're only 3.5 out of first, playing the first place Diamondbacks - 2 outs in the 8th, despite only giving up 3 hits on the night (7 innings, 2 hit ball by Livan Hernandez, in his second San Francisco start) we trail 1-0, Charlie Hayes hits a 3 run homer off Omar Daal and we win it 3-1. Hernandez was already an international phenomenon when he defected from Cuba as a 20 year old in 1995; he pitched in one game for the Marlins in '96, and finished second in the Rookie of the Year race in '97 (Scott Rolen won). We got him at the deadline, just a week before this game, for Nate Bump (our first round pick in '98, he spent 3 serviceable years in the Marlins pen) and Jason Grilli (our top pick in '97. Grilli was the 4th pick overall, a right hander out of Seton Hall, so this was a big roll of the dice trade for the Giants, the top pick overall in '97 was Matt Anderson a pitcher from Rice, he threw 7 replacement level seasons.  The Angels took Troy Glaus just before our Grilli selection; the Jays Vernon Wells right after. Lance Berkman went 16th. Jayson Werth 22nd. We took an Arizona St outfielder Dan McKinley 49th. He got to AAA with the Expos organization but not above. Grilli is still in the league, now 40 years old, as of 2017, he's pitched for 9 clubs, currently he's in the Rangers pen).  Livan was a Giant for four seasons, the only one with an ERA+ over 100 was 2000, his career Giants ERA+ was 92, so he was just a guy, but a guy who you could count on to take the ball - 240 innings in 2000, 226 in '01, 216 in '02.  Just before the '03 season we sent him to the Expos for Jim Brower.  Livan finished up his career in 2012 as a Brewer.  This was Hernandez's first Giants win.

Walk off 2001 home vs. Phillies, this is game 110 and we are rolling, on the 25th we were 6.5 games out but haven't lost since, 8 straight wins to bring us to a game out of the lead in the West (and a half game out of the WC) starting a weekend series against the Phillies, it's 2-2 with 2 out in the bottom of the 9th - Andres Galaraga hits a 2 run walk off homer against Turk Wendell.  We move a half game out in the West (and never get closer).  The version of Galaraga who the Giants got was old man Andres, he was 40 when we got him at the deadline from the Rangers for not very much - he hit in 49 games for us, producing a 127 OPS+.  He left after the season to go back to his original club, the Expos, but would then return in 2003, and again, even as a 42 year old, was solid with the bat, with a 118 OPS+ in just under 300 plate appearances.  He finished his career the following season with the Angels.  This was Galaraga's second Giants homer, the 372nd of his career.  It's only his second career walk off - he's going to hit one more and it's going to happen next month.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!