Wednesday BP, 8/1/18

The Giants won yesterday’s game 3-2 in extra innings, but they could’ve won it earlier had they managed to score after loading the bases with nobody out. As bad as they’ve seemed this season with the bases loaded — they have wasted multiple bases loaded, no out opportunities — they have managed 69 RBI in 102 plate appearances. It just... doesn’t seem like it. That’s because they have zero grand slams.

They’re the only team in the National League without a grand slam. The Angels don’t have one, either. There are 5 teams with one (San Diego, Seattle, Milwaukee, Chicago (AL), and Arizona), the league average is 3. The Red Sox and Reds lead the way with nine. The Giants have had 3 total grand slams over the past 3 seasons. In 2015, they had nine.

I mention all this because today marks the last grand slam of Willie McCovey’s career — his 18th. It came on this date back in 1977 (a Monday) in Montreal against the Expos. The pitcher was Wayne Twitchell and the grand slam came in the 3rd inning and gave the Giants a 6-1 lead. McCovey would hit another home run in the 7th inning. Willie Mays only hit 8 in his career.

The all-time leader is Alex Rodriguez with 25. And just to put things in a weird perspective: Manny Machado already has 8 and Matt Kemp has 8 as well. Barry Bonds had 11.

All this to say, it would be nice if the Giants could capitalize on these bases loaded situations. They don’t have to hit a grand slam every time, but come on, make some noise. The year before they hit 9 home runs in a season, they hit only 4 in 2014. Half of those came in a single game: