On Friday night, the Giants hit five home runs in a single game for the first time since 2014. It’s been a while, but five-homer games are still something of a rarity. Since 1908, the Giants have played in 82 games where they’ve hit five home runs or more. These are supposed to be games that only happen once every few years. Never mind that the Minnesota Twins have seven games like that this year.
It’s worth looking at the most recent games where the Giants have hit five homers or more. There have only been four others in the last decade.
April 23, 2014
Who hit the dingers?: Michael Morse (2), Brandon Hicks, Brandon Belt, and Héctor Sánchez (2)
This was a Coors Field Classic that actually went the Giants’ way. Even though the Giants fell behind 5-1 by the bottom of the second, the Giants managed to tie things up with a pair of Michael Morse home runs and a Brandon Hicks dinger. In the seventh, the Giants went ahead with Brandon Belt’s homer, but they immediately gave it up. The game was tied at 8 runs apiece going into extra innings, and that’s when Héctor Sánchez had his most memorable moment as a Giant.
Wait, no. Not when Dale Thayer threw his gum at him. The other grand slam he hit.
Something that I forgot about was that Sánchez hit his grand slam on the 10th pitch of the at bat. Sánchez’s battle was the perfect culmination for a game that went back and forth.
September 4, 2013
Who hit the dingers?: Brandon Crawford, Hunter Pence, Héctor Sánchez, Pablo Sandoval (3)
The Giants’ six home runs in this game are still a record for any one team at Petco Park. Pablo Sandoval has had other, more important three-homer games, but this one was cool, too. What was special about this game is that Sandoval didn’t hit his first home run until the fifth inning, so Sandoval needed to homer in three straight at-bats. He also hit two of his home runs against two distinct Brads: Brach and Boxberger.
Sandoval’s three-homer game has been scrubbed from MLB’s video archives, so the only video is set to dance music.
I might actually go to clubs if Duane Kuiper home run calls were mixed in over the music.
September 18, 2011
Who hit the dingers?: Mike Fontenot, Pablo Sandoval, Brandon Belt, Matt Cain, Brandon Crawford
This was the last time the Giants had five different players hit a home run, and it happened 8 years ago. It’s a very Giantsy fact that three of those guys are still on the roster. This was another Coors Field game, but this was a tension-free laugher. By game score, this was Cain’s second-worst start of 2011, but he made up for it with hitting a tank. Cain’s home run was part of an eight-run fourth inning in which the Giants hit four of their five home runs. That’s not the most home runs the Giants have ever hit in a single inning. Their record is five which they set in 1961.
August 22, 2009
Who hit the dingers?: Nate Schierholtz, Ryan Garko (2), Aaron Rowand, Pablo Sandoval
The Giants are 74-8 in games where they’ve hit five home runs or more. This was one of those losses. In a prelude to the Spilborghs game, the Giants hit 5 home runs and scored 11 runs, but still managed to lose. The Spilborghs game wouldn’t have been so frustrating if not for the games that came before it. The Giants needed to waste an offensive outburst to make the pitcher’s duel ending with a grand slam so indelible. The Giants gave up 11 runs over the sixth and seventh innings to waste one of Ryan Garko’s finest games in a Giants uniform.