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Ranking the five best moments of Brandon Crawford's SF Giants career

It seems like SF Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford will be playing his final game on Sunday. Aya Newman reflects on his five best on-field moments.

Aya Newman

Ranking the five best moments of Brandon Crawford's SF Giants career
Ranking the five best moments of Brandon Crawford's SF Giants career /
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Brandon Crawford’s playing career may end soon. He has dealt with injuries all season, and his overall level of play has understandably declined as he’s aged. Slated to become a free agent at the end of the season, it's unclear whether Crawford will play another big-league game with the Giants (or anyone else). However, recency bias shouldn’t cloud the amazing contributions Crawford has made to the SF Giants organization. 

Crawford helped the team win two World Series. He has four Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger, and two Wilson Defensive Player of the Year awards to his name. He’s represented the Giants at the All-Star Game three times. He has played the most games at shortstop in franchise history. He even urged the Giants to stay in San Francisco at the tender age of five. Crawford has left an undeniable mark on this franchise. Here are five of his greatest on-field moments:

Five best moments of Brandon Crawford's career:
5. Pitching a scoreless inning against the Cubs

Mike Krukow often says that Crawford’s throwing arm is “one of the best to ever come out of Northern California.” Crawford has shown off his strength at shortstop for years, but throughout his career he’s voiced his desire to take his talents to the mound. On June 11 2023, he finally got that chance. 

Crawford faced the Chicago Cubs in the ninth inning, after the Giants had built up a comfortable 13-3 lead. Perhaps nerves led to a four-pitch walk to start the inning and a base hit to put runners on first and second. But Crawford, ever the professional, settled in and worked a scoreless inning for the last three outs of the game. He featured a changeup, curveball, multiple fastball grips, and even reached 90 miles per hour. Add 0.00 career ERA to his long list of accomplishments.

Five best moments of Brandon Crawford's career:
4. Recording seven hits in one game

Crawford stepped to the plate at Marlins Park in Miami on August 8th, 2016 with six hits in his last 36 at-bats (that’s a .167 average for those keeping score at home). He proceeded to set a franchise record for hits in a single game with seven. No one had gotten seven hits in a National League game in 41 years. And Crawford did it at a ballpark not called Coors Field! He tallied five singles, one double, one triple, ten total bases, and two RBIs, one of which proved to be the winning run in the Giants’ 14-inning 8-7 victory. Crawford’s defense garnered a lot of attention in 2016: he won a Gold Glove and a Wilson Defensive Player of the Year award. However, it was a pretty good year for his bat too.

Five best moments of Brandon Crawford's career:
3. Walking off the Dodgers

Suffice it to say that as a lifelong Giants fan, Brandon Crawford wants to “Beat LA” as badly as anyone. On April 8, 2016, he did just that. This game started out memorably, although not in a good way for the Giants. Ross Stripling made his MLB debut that night and proceeded to throw seven and a third no-hit innings against his future team. 

After Dave Roberts pulled Stripling, the Giants fought back on a two-run game-tying home run by Trevor Brown. The game stayed tied into the tenth until Crawford planted a ball into the left field bleachers, sending the crowd and his teammates into a rivalry-fueled celebration. The Giants made the playoffs that year by finishing just one game ahead of the Cardinals in the Wild Card race. If Crawford didn’t etch his name into the Giants/Dodgers rivalry, maybe that doesn’t happen.

Five best moments of Brandon Crawford's career:
2. The catch against the Dodgers in the 2021 NLDS

Brandon Crawford should have won the National League MVP in 2021. In his age-34 season, he recorded a .298/.373/.522 slash line and accumulated 6.3 fWAR as a shortstop, the most demanding infield position. He was the best player on the best team in baseball, and he was always ready for the moment. 

One game-changing opportunity came in the National League Division Series between the Giants and the Dodgers. The teams had split the first two games of the series, and the Giants had a fragile 1-0 lead going into the 7th inning of Game 3. The Dodgers had two runners on, poised to take the lead in the game as well as the series with Mookie Betts at the plate. 

Betts smacked a pitch from Jake McGee that looked like a sure RBI hit into left field. Until Brandon Crawford leapt into the air and caught it. He reached full extension on a perfectly timed jump and saved at least one, probably two runs. The Giants won the game 1-0, thanks to possibly the greatest defensive play of a career containing dozens.

Five best moments of Brandon Crawford's career:
1. The 2014 Wild Card grand slam

Imagine hitting a grand slam for your first career MLB hit and that’s NOT the grand slam everyone will remember you for. Such is the case for Crawford. 2014 was his third full season in the big leagues, and he established himself as a player with poise beyond his years. He and his teammates would need every bit of it as they traveled to Pittsburgh for the Wild Card game. 

PNC Park had a reputation as one of the most hostile environments for visiting teams in baseball. These fans were the same ones who, in last year’s Wild Card game, taunted Johnny Cueto so forcefully that he dropped the ball in between pitches and gave up a home run on the next one he threw. If the Giants were going to make it to the next round of the playoffs, they’d have to survive Steel City. 

Madison Bumgarner was in fine form, shutting down the Pirates lineup with ease. Fans couldn’t help but think: if we can just get a couple of runs across, we have a chance. Unfortunately for fans, Edinson Volquez hadn’t given up a run in 18 consecutive innings. The chance would be hard to come by. 

The Giants got runners on in the first three innings but couldn’t cash in. They loaded the bases in the 4th, hoping someone could come up big and drive in a run or two. That someone was Brandon Crawford, and he did much better than one or two runs. Volquez threw an 82 mph curveball with a 1-2 count, and Crawford smashed it into the right-field bleachers for a grand slam. The raucous crowd fell silent. With the way Bumgarner was pitching, Crawford had just ended the Pirates’ season.

Bumgarner was always going to be great. The Giants were always going to have a chance. But Brandon Crawford sparked the momentum that the SF Giants rode past Pirates and toward the franchise's last championship.

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Aya Newman
AYA NEWMAN

Aya Newman (she/they) is a writer, musician, and diehard SF Giants fan from Berkeley, California. She has a bachelor’s degree in theatre from Drew University with a concentration in theatrical research and playwriting. Their play about the 2016 World Series, National Pastime, was selected as part of Drew’s Plays in Process reading series. You can (hopefully still) follow Aya on Twitter @bayareadirtbag for additional musings on the Giants, the San Jose Sharks, the Golden State Warriors, and indie rock bands that only she likes.

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