October 1, 1969, San Francisco: Padres 9, Giants 4 (box score)

The Padres provided a rare offensive display in the penultimate game of their inaugural season. For the first time since August 20 at Montreal, they scored more than eight runs.

San Francisco started the scoring. Bobby Bonds led off the fourth inning to give the Giants a 1-0 lead. Four singles later, they pushed it to 3-0 and knocked Joe Niekro out of the contest.

The visitors, however, had ideas of their own. In the fifth, with two on and one out, Tommy Dean flied to right, but Bill Burda dropped the ball, allowing Jim Williams to score from second. Ron Slocum singled to cut San Diego’s deficit to 3-2, and after Ollie Brown popped to short, Nate Colbert tripled home Dean and Slocum. Colbert was thrown out trying for an inside-the-park homer, but the Padres had taken a 4-3 lead.

San Diego added another run in the sixth. Van Kelly led off with a walk, and Cito Gaston doubled him home.

The Giants crept to within one run in the bottom half, but Colbert put the game out of reach in the seventh when he slammed a three-run home run to dead center, giving the Padres an 8-4 lead. San Diego scored again in the eighth en route to a 9-4 victory in front of fewer than 2,200 fans at Candlestick Park.

Tagged as: Baseball, bobby_bonds, candlestick_park, cito_gaston, giants, joe_niekro, nate_colbert, ollie_brown, padres, san_diego_padres, san_francisco_giants