July 8 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Here are the top 5 July 8 moments in San Francisco Giants history.

1967 home vs. Dodgers, 6 games back, Juan Marichal throws a complete game, allowing only 5 baerunners, the big moment a 3 run Jim Ray Hart homer off of Don Drysdale to put us up 5-4 in the 5th. We'd win the game 8-4.  Marichal's the greatest pitcher in San Francisco history, his 2 best seasons were '65 and '66 - he gave a little ground here, with a 121 ERA+ his worst mark since '61.  Marichal's the 4th greatest San Francisco Giant of all time and the 8th best player in franchise history.

1973 at St Louis, game 88 on the season, we're 5.5 out, down 2-1 in the 6th, Willie McCovey drives home 2 with a single off of Rick Wise.  We win this one 5-4.  McCovey won the Rookie of the Year award in '59 playing only 52 games.  He was the unanimous selection.  Except for '62-4 when he played a lot of left field in his time share with Cepeda, he manned first base from the time he came up all the way through this year, the end of his first stint in San Francisco.

1974 at Montreal, we're 21 games out, the season is over and we're playing out the string already, Steve Rogers throws a complete game 5 hitter against us, but one of those hits comes in the top of the 10th - it's a run scoring triple to, of all people, Randy Moffitt that breaks a 4-4 tie on our way to a 5-4 win.  Moffitt couldnt hit, unsurprisingly, he had a career BA of .140, a career OPS+ of -4, he had 12 hits in a 12 year career...but in '74 he had 5 of those hits in 16 at bats, meaning he hit an improbable .313 this season.  This was one of Moffitt's two career extra base hits.

Walk off 1977 home vs. Braves, we're 20 games out of first, 2600 paid on a Friday night at the Stick, Phil Niekro throws a complete game, so he's still on the mound in the bottom of the 9th in a 2-2 game when Jack Clark doubles home Vic Harris with the winning run.  Clark broke in two years prior when he was 19 years old, but this is his rookie season, he takes over as the RF (Bobby Murcer had been there the 2 years before, he, of course, took over the position from Bobby Bonds after the two were swapped for each other, and Bonds had been the full time RF since '69, really pushing Jesus Alou out during the '68 season). Clark keeps the job through '84.  So, except for the 2 seasons with Murcer, from '69-'84 we have the Giants careers of the 2 greatest right fielders in San Francisco history, Bonds and Clark.

1987 at Pittsburgh, we're  4 games off the lead, a near 4 hour game in front of 10,000 paid at Three Rivers, future Giants Rick Reuschel and Don Robinson both pitch in this one for the Bucs - and maybe you'll have heard of the guy in the big moment, it's 4-4 in the bottom of the 9th, the Pirates have the bases loaded with 1 out against Craig Lefferts - at the plate, 22 year old Barry Bonds - Lefferts gets him to go 3-2-3 to end the inning. We're gonna play 5 more, but we get them in the 14th 8-4.  Three solid lefty relief years out of Lefferts for the Giants, this was the first, he came over from the Padres 3 days prior in the big Mitchell/Dravecky trade and this was already his 4th appearance as a Giant.  Lefferts will be headed back to San Diego, signing with the Padres after the '89 season.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

July 7 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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

1963 home vs. Cardinals, we walked off St Louis two days before, this is the first game of a doubleheader, we're 11 games over .500 and 2 out of first.  Why not play a 4 hour, 15 inning game one?  This moment takes place in the 13th, we're down 3-2 with 2 out, Ed Bailey doubles home Jim Ray Hart off of Lew Burdette and the game continues - we win it in 15 on Ken Boyer's second error of the game.  It's Bailey's big year with the bat, he had a 147 OPS+.  This was Hart's big league debut - in game 2 Bob Gibson broke his shoulder with a fastball.

1965 at St Louis, 3.5 games out - two years later we got the Cardinals in extras again, Bob Gibson had allowed 14 baserunners and struck out a dozen - so of course he was still in the game with the score tied 2-2 in the 13th, Tom Haller hit a 2 run homer and we'd beat St Louis 4-2.  Haller and Bailey split catching duties in '62-3, beginning in '64 the job was Haller's, it would remain so until he was traded to the Dodgers before the '68 season

1982 at Mets, we're 13 games out of first, Johnnie Lemaster and his .267 OBP led off for the Giants in this one, we were down 2-1 with 2 out in the 8th, 37 year old Reggie Smith hit a 2 run homer off of Brent Gaff, (in his big league debut) we won the game 3-2.  After 6 seasons in LA, this was Smith's last year in the big leagues. He hit the ball with a 137 OPS+ as our first baseman. We ran through a first basemen a year in the front half of the 80s - McCovey's last year as our primary first baseman was '79, in '80 it was Ivie, in '81 Cabell, Smith was '82, in '83 it was Darrell Evans, who had been our third baseman for years after having done a season at first in the mid 70s after McCovey was sent to San Diego.  In '84 it was Al Oliver, in '85 David Green - and then in '86 up came Will Clark.

Walk off 1990 home vs Cubs, it's game 81 on the season, we're 9.5 out, 30 hits combined in this one, we knocked out Greg Maddux in the 4th, it took a 2 run Brett Butler homer in the 8th to keep it close, we were down to our last strike in the bottom of the 9th, losing 9-8, Les Lancaster had a 1-2 count on Mike Kingery - he hits a 2 run game winning single.  This is the first of 2 Kingery seasons as our 4th OF, he signed with Oakland after the '91 season.  Gary Carter went 5-5 in this one.  Carter had 5 hits one other time in his career, as a Met in a 19 inning game in '84 that ended at 4 in the morning.

1992 home vs. Phillies, we were 11 out but took 2 from the Phillies here; this was the first half, down 7-6 in the 8th, Robby Thompson hit a 2 run homer off of Mike Hartley.  We'd win it 8-7.  Remember how we had a first baseman every year in the 80s?  In 1980 our second baseman was Rennie Stennett, it was Joe Morgan in '81 and '82, Duane Kuiper and Brad Wellman split time in '83, it was Manny Trillo in '84 and '85 and then in '86 up came Robby Thompson.

See you tomorrow. Go Giants!

July 6 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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

1966 home vs. St Louis, we're 18 over .500 and 1.5 up in the NL, down 2-0 in the 8th, 2 on, 2 out, Willie Mays hits a 3 run homer off Don Dennis as we are gonna win this one 3-2. This is the year it starts to slip for Mays, he's 35 years old - the year before he led the majors in everything, homers, OPS+, total bases, his 185 OPS+ at the age of 34 was the high mark of his career, but this is the first step down, the OPS+ drops to to 149, the homers drop to 37, they'll drop again the following season.  He's still great, he's still Willie Mays, but the four best seasons of his life were the prior four seasons, this is the 8th best - still worth 8 and a half WAR, he finished third in the MVP race - but from the distance of history you can see that this is the year it starts to happen.

1972 at Philadelphia, we're 16 games under .500 and 16 games out of first in the west (the Phillies were worse, 21 under .500 - this unattractive matchup had less than 5500 paid on a Thursday night at the Vet) two outs in the 10th, Tito Fuentes triples home two runs off Woody Fryman and we win the game 6-4.  Fuentes (one of the last players out of Cuba prior to the embargo) finished third in the Rookie of the Year race in '66 as our shortstop (Tommy Helms won) he moved to second in '67 but couldn't hit enough to stay with the big club and spent much of the next 2 seasons in the minors.  Fuentes was a utility player in '70, although he got a ton of at bats, and in '71 took over at second base where he stayed through the '74 season, never really hitting much but fielding well enough to make him reasonable at the position, if not particularly helpful.  We send him to the Padres for Derrel Thomas after the '74 season.  Thomas then takes over at second in '75 and '76, Rob Andrews gets the job in '77, Madlock in '78 and '79, he's dealt for Rennie Stennett who is our second baseman in '80, and then in '81 we sign Joe Morgan.

1985 at Chicago, we're 19 games under .500 and just a million games out of first place, 16 games out, we trailed 4-3 in the 8th but a Manny Trillo homer tied it up - and at 4-4 in the 9th a Chris Brown homer off of Lee Smith puts us up 5-4 in a game we'd win 6-4.  Trillo was both a former and future Cub, he finished third in the Rookie of the Year race in '75 as Cub second baseman, we got him 9 years later as a 33 year old in '84, signing as a free agent to replace Joe Morgan as our starter at second in '84 and '85 (Trillo is the bridge between Morgan and Robby Thompson) and in the offseason we're going to trade him to the Cubs. He couldn't hit for us (particularly this year) but caught the ball okay.

1989 at Pittsburgh, we're 15 games over .500 with a 1.5 game lead in the west, John Smiley goes all 10 innings for the Bucs, allowing only 8 baserunners, it's 1-1 with 2 out in the top of the 10th when Brett Butler homers to right with what turns out to be the game winner.  It's Butler's second of three seasons as the Giants center fielder and leadoff hitter.  This is Butler's 35th career homer and the only one he'd ever hit in extra innings.  Butler hit 13 homers as a Giant.



Walk off 2011 home vs. Padres, it's game 88 on the season so we have hit the back half, and despite a 3 game losing streak we maintain a one game lead in the west.  It took 4 hours, in the bottom of the 14th, Nate Schierholtz broke a 5-5 tie with a walk off homer off of Pat Neshek.  It was a big day for Nate, who added a second homer and a double.  Schierholtz was our starting right fielder in both '10 and '11, we sent him to the Phillies in a deadline deal in '12 as part of the Pence trade.  This was his 15th career home run and the only walk off he'd ever hit.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

July 5 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

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Yesterday

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

Walk off 1958 home vs. Cardinals, we walked off the Cubs the day before, we come in 2.5 out of first place in our inaugural campaign, Mike McCormick throws a complete game 6 hitter in this one, a Ray Jablonski triple in the 9th tied the game, now, the bases are loaded, it's 4-4 with 2 out, Willie Kirkland draws a walk (to walk off) off of Larry Jackson to score Bob Speake with the winning run.  McCormick came up with New York in '56, threw a half dozen innings as a 17 year old.  He comes west, is part of the rotation this year as a 19 year old - he's okay, wins 11 games, ERA+ of 84 - but two years later he leads MLB with a 2.70 ERA. It's his career year, worth more than 6 WAR and, through 2016, is the 53rd greatest year for any starting pitcher in franchise history.  He's gone at the end of the '62 season, to the Orioles along with Stu Miller and John Orsino for what turned out to be not very much.  In '67 he comes back in a deal with Washington and wins 22 games and the Cy Young Award.  This stint lasts until midway through the '70 season when we send McCormick to the Yankees.  We take a flyer on him one more time, in '72, more than a quarter century after he was first signed to the organization, but he doesn't get out of the minors.

1963 home vs. Cardinals, 3 games out of first, we play a 3 and a half hour Friday night game at the Stick, down 5-4 in the 9th Harvey Kuenn ties it up with a single off Ron Taylor scoring Matty Alou.

Ranking the Alous (Giants playing career only)
1. Felipe
2. Moises
3. Matty
4. Jesus

Walk off 1963 home vs. Cardinals, same game, in the 11th Chuck Hiller singles home Jose Pagan off of Ed Bauta to break a 5-5 tie and send everyone home.  It's the 22nd extra innings walk off hit in San Francisco history.

Walk off 1978 home vs. Padres, we're 16 games over .500 with a 2 game lead in the west, this is game 81 on the season, we tied it up in the 9th on a McCovey homer off of Rollie Fingers, the bases are loaded with 1 out in the bottom of the 10th, Clark's at third after a double - Fingers is still in the game - but a Jim Dwyer sac fly scores Jack to end it.  Dwyer had an 18 year big league career, 73 games of which were as a Giant, we got him from the Cards 3 weeks earlier and sold him to Boston before the '79 season.  Dwyer had 22 RBI with San Francisco

2001 at Los Angeles, we're 7.5 out and trying not to get swept in a 4 game series at Dodger Stadium. 2-2 in the 9th, with two outs 39 year old Eric Davis came on to pinch hit a single, moved to second on an error, and then scored what turned out to be the winning run on a Rich Aurilia base hit.  This is Davis's 17th and final big league season and the only year he spent in San Francisco. We signed him prior to the year, he didn't have much left, played in 74 games, hit just .205.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!

July 4 - Top 5 Moments in San Francisco Giants History

What is this all about?

Yesterday

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

Walk off 1958 home vs. Cubs, the first San Francisco club was 3.5 out and playing a 4th of July doubleheader, we trailed 5-1 going to the bottom of the 9th, scored 3 runs, but still trailed 5-4 with 2 on and 2 out.  Fortunately, Willie Mays was at the plate, he singled home Alou and Kirkland off of Dick Drott to give us the ballgame (we lost the second game).  It's Mays's first San Francisco walk off hit.

Walk off 1969 home vs. Braves, 6.5 games out and playing a 4th of July doubleheader against the first place Braves, down 6-5 in the bottom of the 10th, Bob Burda (who pinch hit a 2 run homer in the ninth to send the game into extra innings) hits a 2 run double off of Paul Doyle to shave a game off the Braves lead.  Burda spent portions of 4 replacement level seasons as a Giants pinch hitter, He came over from Pittsburgh with Bob Priddy for Del Crandall before the '65 season and we sold him to the Brewers in the middle of 1970.

1969 home vs. Braves, game two of the double header, down 3-2 in the 6th, Dave Marshall singles home Hunt and Bonds off of Ron Reed, we win this one 7-3 and pick up 2 games on the first place Braves. This is the only year of Marshall's career where he got more than 250 plate appearances, he shared left with Ken Henderson, just couldn't hit enough to stay in a big league lineup. We got him from the Angels just before the '66 season for Hector Torres and sent him to the Mets along with Ray Sadecki after this season.

1990 home vs. Cardinals, we're 9 games out of first, down 2-1 in the 7th, a Brett Butler bunt single off of Ken Dayley coupled with a Terry Pendleton throwing error scored two runs and we go on to win the game 9-2.  It's Butler's third and final year in San Francisco, he was worth more than 5 WAR, it's the 20th best season any Giants center fielder ever had.  Even with only 3 seasons, through 2016, Butler's the 36th best player in San Francisco history.  Whitey Herzog quits his job as Cards manager a couple days later.

2007 at Cincinnati, this is game 82, we're 11.5 out of first, down 3-1 in the 4th, Fred Lewis hits a grand slam off of Matt Belisle, we win this one 9-5.  It's Lewis's first full big league season, he's our 4th OF, it's his 3rd career homer, but his second grand slam.  He spends 4 years as a Giant and then we send him to Toronto.  Lewis is out of the league after 2012.  Barry hit #751 the day before.

See you tomorrow.  Go Giants!