In the fifth inning of the Giants-White Sox game on Sunday afternoon, Rafael Devers came to the plate with the score tied, the bases loaded and nobody out. There were all sorts of potential outcomes. A double play would have given the Giants the lead and quieted the crowd at the same time. A fly ball would have given them the lead, but it also would have meant they\u2019d need an ol\u2019-fashioned clutch hit to score more runs, and they\u2019ve had a miserable time producing those kinds of hits this season. A strikeout would have ratcheted up the sense of impending doom.<\/p>\n
Every single person paying attention, though, was thinking the same thing: You know, he could hit a grand slam. It was the bogeyman lurking in the mind of White Sox fans. It was a satisfying-if-implausible daydream for Giants fans. No matter how sophisticated a baseball fan you might be, you\u2019re never more than a bases-loaded situation away from thinking, \u201cWhat if a big home run scored four runs at the same time?\u201d<\/p>\n
Devers did the thing:<\/p>\n
It was the Giants\u2019 second grand slam in as many games and their third grand slam in the last eight days. All of this makes for a great excuse to look up the history of Giants\u2019 grand slams. When you get the chance to gorge on fun facts, you gorge on fun facts. It\u2019s one of the immutable laws of the universe.<\/p>\n
For example, Devers\u2019 grand slam was the Giants\u2019 244th since the club moved to San Francisco. Divide that by their 68 seasons here, including this one, and you get an average of roughly 3.5 grand slams per season. That means the Giants have hit almost a season\u2019s worth of grand slams in the last eight days. The season hasn\u2019t exactly been saved yet, but the road to enjoying baseball again runs through stretches just like this.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s look for more fun facts about grand slams, with factlets and tidbits welcome. Almost all of these numbers come from Stathead searches<\/a>, and if you subscribe, you can skip my stupid jokes entirely.<\/p>\n Keep in mind, though, they\u2019ll never have a search that reminds you without prompting that Kelby Tomlinson\u2019s three major-league home runs were a grand slam, an inside-the-park homer and a home run against Clayton Kershaw. This makes Dr. Tomlinson<\/a> the John Cazale of home-run hitters, someone who offered nothing but perfect contributions<\/a> to the form over his short career.<\/p>\n See? Fun facts. There should be at least a couple more out there. Let\u2019s start with \u2026<\/p>\n Harrison Bader hit more grand slams as a Giant last week than Pablo Sandoval ever did<\/p>\n Bader is also tied with Bob Brenly, Chili Davis and Darrell Evans, with one more to go before he ties Will Clark. He\u2019s, let\u2019s see, 14 grand slams behind Willie McCovey, but the season is young.<\/p>\n The Sandoval one gets me, and not because it says anything bad about him or his Giants career. It\u2019s just a perfect way to explain the randomness and odd permutations that baseball spits out. Sandoval won three championships and made two All-Star teams in San Francisco, and he\u2019ll always be tied for the lowest ERA in Giants history, but he\u2019ll never have as many grand slams as a Giant as Bader hit in four plate appearances with the bases loaded.<\/p>\n Of course, this all applies to the grand slams that Madison Bumgarner hit in 2014, so there are levels of grand-slam appreciation to be had. Also, as long as we\u2019re having fun with career grand-slam totals, Devers\u2019 grand slam was the seventh of his career, tying him<\/a> with Vladimir Guerrero Sr., Carl Yastrzemski and Pedro Feliz on the all-time list.<\/p>\n No pitcher has allowed more than two grand slams to a Giant \u2026 but Alex Vesia has a chance<\/p>\n In all the seasons of San Francisco Giants baseball, there hasn\u2019t been a pitcher who stuck around long enough to allow three grand slams to them. There have been 13 pitchers who allowed a pair of them, including Hall of Famer Don Sutton, but never three.<\/p>\n Enter Alex Vesia, who has allowed grand slams to Darin Ruf (2022) and J.D. Davis (2023). Since then, the Giants have had just three chances against him, including one this year. Let\u2019s all start paying a little more attention to these matchups. It\u2019s not much, but we grab anything to root for these days.<\/p>\n My guess: Jhonny Level at PNC Park in 2031. I\u2019ll set a reminder on my phone.<\/p>\n The season with the most grand slams<\/p>\n That would be the 2015 Giants. Who weren\u2019t exactly a fount of fun facts. They\u2019re one of the most forgettable teams of the last couple decades, having the misfortune of being sandwiched directly between the final championship and the collapse. This was the season of Casey McGehee, for example. He even hit one of the team\u2019s nine grand slams that year.<\/p>\n Still, nine grand slams in a single season! McGehee was joined by Tomlinson, Brandon Crawford, Hunter Pence, H\u00e9ctor S\u00e1nchez, Jarrett Parker, Marlon Byrd and Buster Posey (twice).<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to make this fun fact that fun, though. It was the first fun fact of them all, and it almost derailed the entire article. Had to bury it down here. Apparently, being good at grand slams isn\u2019t always the same as being good at baseball, but you knew that already.<\/p>\n The seasons without any grand slams<\/p>\n Noting the seasons that were bereft of grand slam frivolity would seem to be the opposite of a fun fact, but doing so allows you to appreciate the Giants\u2019 last few days even more. Sometimes, the seasons stink so much that you don\u2019t even get to enjoy a single grand slam, and you can be grateful that at least you\u2019re not watching one of those seasons.<\/p>\n Case in point: The 2018 Giants, who were the least rewarding team I\u2019ve ever watched. They didn\u2019t hit a single grand slam, possibly because they didn\u2019t load the bases all season. I\u2019ve never put my hand in the gom jabbar thingie from \u201cDune,\u201d but I have done a post-postgame show on live TV for a team that specialized in 3:30 games and six-run losses, and I feel like it evens out.<\/p>\n There were two other Giants teams that never hit a grand slam: 1975 and 1979. Once the Willies left, the Giants spent the rest of the \u201970s giving away young All-Star outfielders, so they didn\u2019t have time to worry about things like \u201cgrand slams.\u201d<\/p>\n Also note: The 103-win team from 1993 had just one, but so did the 100-loss team from 1985.<\/p>\n Random grand slam tidbits that are too good to ignore<\/p>\n \u2022 Darryl Strawberry hit a grand slam for the Giants against Pedro Mart\u00ednez, which isn\u2019t a sentence I expected to type when I started this.<\/p>\n \u2022 The San Francisco Giants once hit a grand slam in the Polo Grounds. If that sentence doesn\u2019t seem odd to you, read it again. One of these years, I\u2019ll remember that the New York Mets played at the Polo Grounds before construction had finished on Shea Stadium, but this is not that year.<\/p>\n \u2022 There have been five walk-off grand slams in San Francisco history, but the highest-leverage grand slam according to the math (leverage index and Win Probability Added) was this one from Ernie Riles in 1989.<\/a><\/p>\n \u2022 According to leverage index<\/a>, the least important grand slam in franchise history was hit by Tomlinson. Which is why I\u2019ve always said that you can\u2019t trust math.<\/p>\n \u2022 Grand slams I\u2019ve decided you can refer to by player alone, without any other context: the Mike Ivie grand slam<\/a>; the Milt May grand slam<\/a>; the Brandon Crawford grand slam; the Mat Latos grand slam. Other suggestions are welcome, but these four are definitely in there.<\/p>\n \u2022 The last time the Giants hit three grand slams in a month? Last May<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 The last time the Giants hit grand slams in consecutive games? Last June<\/a>. Look, not all of these fun facts contain the same amount of fun. None of this stuff is regulated. Blame Orrin Hatch<\/a>.<\/p>\n