PROGRAMMING NOTE: NBC Sports Bay Area is looking back at the Giants' 60 Memorable Moments since the franchise moved from New York to San Francisco. Tune into Pregame Live at 6pm to see the next two moments you can vote on! Then, after the D'backs and Giants conclude, tune into Postgame Live to see which moment will move on to the next round! Make your vote count!
1. J.T. Snow saves Darren Baker during Game 5 of the 2002 World Series (defeated Angel Pagan's inside-the-park walk-off home run on May 25th, 2013)
(From Alex Pavlovic)
Darren Baker now plays baseball at Cal, but 16 years ago, he was involved in a memorable and scary moment at home plate. Then three years old, he served as bat boy for the Giants as they faced the Angels in the World Series.
In the seventh inning of Game 5, Kenny Lofton hit a high drive off an archway in right field. J.T. Snow and David Bell raced home. "As I'm running towards home, out of the corner of my eye I see something dart out of the dugout," Snow said later. "I realize about halfway down that it's Darren running and he's making a beeline for the bat."
Snow reached out with his right hand as he touched the plate and scooped Darren up by grabbing a handful of his warm-up jacket a second before Bell crossed the plate. All was fine, although Dusty Baker said he got an angry phone call from his mom after the game.
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2. Cody Ross' two home runs off Roy Halladay in Game 1 of the 2010 NLCS
(From Cody Ross)
'Best memory out of the 60 hands down'
In Game 1 of the NLCS we had the hardest matchup that we were going to face the entire playoffs. We were staring down the Late Roy Halladay, who in my opinion was the best pitcher I've ever faced. He threw a Perfect Game against me when I was on the Marlins earlier in the year and was coming off a no-hitter in the NLDS against the Reds in his previous start. Not to mention he's a 2x Cy Young award winner and an 8x All-Star.
As I walk to the plate in the 3rd inning of a 0-0 game I'm realizing Roy has not given up a hit yet again. He was one of those pitchers who had a chance to throw a no-hitter every time he took the mound. That's how good he was. Up until this point, I had tried every approach with little-to-no success against him. I tried to work the counts and see pitches, stay inside the ball and hit it the other way, stay up the middle, etc etc... none of these seemed to get the job done. Finally that cold October night I said to myself, "Just try and hit a home run"... and all of a sudden on a 1-1 count I swung as hard as I could and "Bang! A HR!" The best contact I'd ever had against Roy and I was just as surprised as anybody in the ballpark or the millions watching on TV. I couldn't feel my legs running around the bases and couldn't believe what just happened. It was the first hit he had given up in the playoffs and it was a go-ahead home run to put us up 1-0 with Tim Lincecum also throwing a gem.
As I stepped up to the plate in the top of the 5th the game was tied 1-1. At this point I had a ton of confidence and felt like nobody could get me out. I went with the same approach of trying to hit a home run and on a 2-0 pitch the unthinkable happened again! Hard contact and I see the ball flying over the left field fence. I took a peek at Roy and he was in disbelief just as I was.
There are many memorable playoff HR stories but it's hard to find one against one of the most dominating pitchers in this era. It will definitely go down as one of my greatest baseball memories. I hope all the Giants fans enjoyed it as much as I did.
VOTE HERE:
Which #SFGiants 60th Anniversary moment was more memorable?
The winning moment will move on to the next matchup on Thursday.— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 10, 2018
