May 22 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 May 22 Moments in San Francisco Giants History.

1968 at Atlanta, complete game 3 hitter by Mike McCormick, but it took a 2 out tiebreaking Willie Mays single in the 9th inning off of Pat Jarvis to give us the 2-1 win.  Mays was 37 in '68, had a 156 OPS+, his best year with the bat since '65.  It's his 14th best season.

1981 at Houston, 14th inning, 2-2, with 2 out Jerry Martin singles home Darrell Evans off of Dave Smith, we go up 3-2. Its Martin's only season in San Francisco, we got him in the offseason from the Cubs for Joe Strain, we'll move him in the offseason to the Royals for Rich Gale and Bill Laskey.

1981 at Houston, same game 4 and a half hours on a Friday night at the Astrodome, 3-3 game in the 15th, bases loaded, two out, Darrell Evans singles home 2 off of Bobby Sprowl, it's our 18th hit of the night and we win it 6-3.

2005 home vs A's, 6th inning, 1 on, 2 out, we trail Oakland 1-0, Moses Alou hits a 2 run homer off of future (mostly awful) Giant Barry Zito.  We win the game 3-1.  It's Alou's 5th Giants homer.



Walk off 2011 home vs. A's, 4-4 in the 11th, Emmanuel Burriss singles home Darren Ford off of Brian Fuentes to win it for the home team.  Burriss came up in '06 and did portions of five seasons as a utility guy.  He left after the 2012 season.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

May 21 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the Top 5 Moments on May 21 in San Francisco Giants history.

1969 home vs Cardinals, 2-2 in the 8th, 38 year old Willie Mays hits a 2 run homer off Gary Waslewski, we win the game 4-3.  It's homer #592 for Mays.

1972 home vs Braves, after losing the front end of a doubleheader the Giants were 10-25 on the season, we trailed 1-0 with 2 out in the 8th, Bobby Bonds hits a 2 run homer off Ron Reed and those are the last runs scored.  It's the 105th homer of Bonds's career.

2004 at Montreal, down 3-2 in the 7th, Edgardo Alfonzo hits a 2 run double off of Luis Ayala.  We go up 4-3 and win 6-5.  Alfonzo was replacement level in his 3 San Francisco seasons.

2013 home vs. Nationals, down 2-1 with 2 out in the 9th, Gregor Blanco triples home Andres Torres off of Rafael Soriano to the the score.  Blanco got a couple thousand plate appearances, mostly as the 4th OF for the Giants, but started and was worth a couple wins in '13.



Walk off 2013 home vs. Nationals, same game, Pablo Sandoval hits a 2 run homer in the 10th off of Yunesky Maya and we win the game.  Sandoval had two walk off homers as a Giant, the first was four years prior, also off the Nationals.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

May 20 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

Here are the top 5 May 20 Moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1971 at Cubs, the Giants were 28-11 with an 8.5 game lead coming in but trailed 6-5 in the 9th inning when Willie McCovey hit a 3 run homer off Earl Stephenson.  We held on 8-7. McCovey's peak ended the year before, his aged 30-32 seasons were the best run of his career, but he still had an OPS+ of 149 in '71. This was his 360th career homer.

1977 at Cardinals, we were already 13.5 out and facing a long slog when we were tied with the Cardinals in the 9th inning, 4-4, 2 on, 2 out, Darrell Evans drove them both home with a double off of Al Hrabosky and we'd win 7-5.  It's Evans's first full season in San Francisco, coming over from the Braves during the '76 campaign.  Through 2016 Evans remains the 23rd greatest San Francisco Giant of all time.

1982 home vs Pirates, 4000 paid on a Thursday afternoon at the Stick, tied at 1, 2 on 2 out in the 8th, Joe Morgan singles off Rod Scurry to score both men and 3-1 was the final score.  Having been able to see Joe Morgan in his two seasons in San Francisco is a benefit of my age.  Morgan was good - particularly this season, when he was 37 years old in '82 he was worth 5+ WAR, it was the 12th best season for a second baseman in Giants organizational history.  We dealt him to the Phillies after the season with Al Holland for Mark Davis and Mike Krukow.

2004 at Chicago, 3-3 with 2 outs in the 10th, Neifi Perez hits a 2 run homer off Joe Borowski and we win 5-3.  Perez was awful in his less than 2 years in San Francisco, he had an OPS+ of 48 in '04, we released him in August and he got picked up by these Cubs.

2011 home vs A's, interleague against our crosstown...not really rivals, honestly, more like just neighbors, at least from the Giants perspective...1-1 in the bottom of the 10th, Aubrey Huff singles home Emmanuel Burriss off of Brian Fuentes and 2-1 is the final score.  Huff was 7th in the NL MVP race in 2010 and he never plays another big league game after 2012.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

May 19 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday

What is this all about?

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

1963 home vs Phillies, second half of a Sunday doubleheader, Giants in first place, down 3-2 with 2 out in the 5th, Ed Bailey hits a 3 run homer off John Boozer to put us up 5-3.

Walk off 1963 home vs Phillies, same game, it's now tied 5-5, with an out in the 9th Felipe Alou hit the game winning homer off Ryne Duran. In the offseason we'd move both Alou and Bailey in the same deal, to the Brewers for Del Crandall.

1972 home vs Atlanta, the Giants are 9-23 and no one is at the park for this Friday night game (I might have been there.  Was I there?) We were down 5-1 but scored 6 in the 7th, the big blow being a 2 run Garry Maddox double off Pat Jarvis.  We won 7-6.  This is Maddox's rookie year, we drafted him in '68, he came up in '72 and replaced Willie Mays as the starting center fielder.  He was good - through 2016 the 37th best season for a CF in organizational history is Maddox's the following year.  In early '75 we moved him to Philadelphia where he'd spend the rest of his career.

1979 at Atlanta, Giants looking to take both ends of a doubleheader, 2 outs in the top of the 11th, 5-5, a man on - Willie McCovey hits a 2 run homer off of Gene Garber.  We'll win the game 7-6. McCovey's 41 in '79, his last full season.  It's his 507th career homer, he only has 14 left to hit.

1992 home vs Pirates, down 2-1 in the 6th, Will Clark hits a two run homer off Doug Drabek, we go on to win 7-2. Will came up hitting, from a homer off Nolan Ryan in his big league debut in '86 until this to beat Drabek with his 150th career homer.  He had a 148 OPS+ in '92.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

May 18 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

Yesterday.

What is this all about?

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

1966 at Dodgers, at 22-10 the Giants were in first place as they played this Wednedsay night game at a sold out Dodger Stadium.  Down 3-2 in the 8th, Hal Lanier tied the score with a base hit off of Claude Osteen to score Don Landrum.  We won 6-4.  Lanier came up through the system, signed when he was 18, became the starting second baseman in '64, could not hit a lick, never hit a lick, got 3700 sub replacement plate appearances as a Giant with an OPS+ of 50.  It wasn't Mays/McCovey/Marichal's fault we never won a World Series, it was all the bums we put next to them.

1974 home vs Padres, Giants down 2-1 with 2 out in the 8th when Mike Phillips hits a 3 run homer of Steve Arlin.  You've gotta be getting tired of reading about Mike Phillips every day.  We win 4-2.  Like Lanier, Phillips was a farmhand, drafted at 18, was a utility guy in '73 and '74, we let him go early in the '75 season.

2005 at Colorado, 2-2 in the ninth, Deivi Cruz continues the May 18th tradition of light hitting middle infielders winning games for the Giants; he triples home Pedro Feliz off of Brian Fuentes and we win 3-2.  Cruz was a replacement level utility infielder for two Giants seasons near the end of his 9 year career.  He hit 3 triples with San Francisco.

2010 at San Diego, 4-4 in the 12th, runners on the corners, it's May 18th, so who wins this game...it's Matt Downs, he doubles everyone home off of Cesar Ramos and we wind up winning the game 7-6.  This broke a seven game losing streak against the Padres. Downs was a light hiting backup infielder who came up through the system, got about 140 Giants plate appearances and would be released about 3 months after winning this game.

2011 at Dodgers, like 45 years prior we're in first place at Dodger Stadium, no banjo hitting utility guy here, just Brian Wilson, with the bases loaded and a 3-1 lead, getting Jamey Carroll to line to right to end the game.  It was Madison Bumgarner's first win of the season.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!