The Road to 10,000 Wins

With 10,344 regular season wins, the New York/San Francisco Giants franchise has collected more wins than any other baseball team in Major League history. It is not hard to see how the club reached that mark, suiting up legends such as John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, Mel Ott, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey. Here is how the team reached the plateau, a thousand wins at a time:

Win #1,000 – May 8, 1897 against the Brooklyn Bridegrooms (9-5 win)
Two costly errors by Brooklyn pitcher ‘Roaring Bill’ Kennedy early in the contest led to four Giants runs as New York beat their crosstown rivals by a score of 9-5. The Giants recorded a safe hit in every inning of the contest, 15 in total, and they were led by shortstop George Davis who went 5-for-5. Pitching ace Amos Rusie pitched all nine innings, giving up five earned runs on nine hits to record the victory.

Win #2,000 – August 9, 1909 against the St. Louis Cardinals (4-3 win)
New York second baseman Larry Doyle broke a tie by smacking an RBI triple in the tenth inning, scoring the eventual game-winning run as the Giants won their third consecutive game in St. Louis. Doyle finished the day with three hits while Cy Seymour and Bill O’Hara had a pair each. Doc Crandall picked up the win on the mound, pitching two-plus innings in relief of starter Bugs Raymond.

Win #3,000 – September 8, 1920 against the Boston Braves (5-1 win)
In Boston, the Giants won both ends of a doubleheader to give them wins #2999 and #3000. In the second game, a three-run fourth inning highlighted a 5-1 victory for John McGraw’s team. Centerfielder Lee King led the way on offense, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Doyle also drove in two runs for the Giants. Slim Sallee picked up the win on the mound in his first appearance as a Giant after he was claimed off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds just four days earlier. The two wins brought New York within 1 ½ games of the National League lead but they would fade down the stretch and finish seven games behind pennant-winning Brooklyn.

Win #4,000 – May 18, 1932 against the Cincinnati Reds (9-3 win)
The Giants were struggling early on in the 1932 season and entered this game in Cincinnati with a 9-14 record. Things didn’t look good early as the Reds jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the first inning but the Giants would recover in the seventh. Led by a three-run homer by Bill Terry, the Giants put up seven runs in the inning on their way to a 9-3 victory. Despite the shaky start, Hal Schumacher recorded the victory, going six innings while Clarence Mitchell was credited with the save by pitching spotless ball in the final three innings.

Win #5,000 – June 19, 1944 against the Brooklyn Dodgers (10-2 win)
Brooklyn’s defense faltered throughout the contest, leading the way for five unearned runs as the Giants beat the Dodgers 10-2 at Ebbets Field. Six of the Giants runs came in the second inning which featured punishing hits from both Gus Mancuso and Joe Medwick. Harry Feldman pitched a complete game as he picked up the win on the mound for the Giants.

Win #6,000 – April 21 ^, 1957 against the Philadelphia Phillies (2-1 win)
The Giants picked up their 6,000 ^th win in franchise history during their fourth game of the 1957 season, their final year in New York before moving to San Francisco. Willie Mays scored the game-winning run on a Hank Sauer walk-off single in the ninth to give the Giants a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. The only runs in the contest to that point came in the second on solo homers by the Phils’ Ted Kluszewski and Sauer. All-star hurler Johnny Antonelli went the distance to collect the victory despite giving up nine hits and six walks. The Phillies’ Robin Roberts also threw a complete game in the losing cause.

Win #7,000 – July 18, 1968 against the St. Louis Cardinals (3-0 win)
Juan Marichal came out on top in a pitching duel against the Cards’ Steve Carlton as the Giants blanked the first-place Cardinals 3-0 in St. Louis. Marichal surrendered only four hits in a complete game effort and also added an RBI as he improved his overall record to an impressive 17-4. Hal Lanier and Jesus Alou also drove in runs while third baseman Jim Davenport went 4-for-5.

Win #8,000 – October 2, 1980 against the Los Angeles Dodgers (3-2 win)
Darrell Evans hit a two-run single in the eighth to push the Giants over the Dodgers in a tight contest. The Dodgers’ Steve Garvey put the Giants in a hole early on when he hit a two-run shot off of starter Vida Blue to give Los Angeles a quick advantage. Blue hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth to cut the lead in half before Evans drove in the tying and winning runs in the eighth. Greg Minton got the victory on the hill in relief of Blue while Al Holland collected his seventh save of the season.

Win #9,000 – July 30, 1993 against the Colorado Rockies (10-4 win)
San Francisco put up 16 hits and scored runs in seven different innings off of five opposing pitchers as they thumped the expansion Colorado Rockies by a score of 10-4. Off-season acquisition Barry Bonds hit two home runs and catcher Kirt Manwaring had three RBIs to lead the Giants’ charge offensively in front of a crowd of 70,000+ at Mile High Stadium. Greg Brummett was the winning pitcher, improving his record to 2-3.

Win #10,000 – July 14, 2005 against the Los Angeles Dodgers (4-3 win)
The Giants reached five digits in franchise wins by hanging on to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 4-3 at Dodger Stadium. Omar Vizquel broke a 1-1 tie in the seventh by hitting a three-run homer off of LA reliever D.J. Houlton. The Dodgers battled back and scored two runs in the same inning but that would be all they could muster. Jason Schmidt pitched six innings to record the win, improving his mark to 7-5. Ray Durham had two of the Giants’ seven hits in the contest.