Flashback Friday: Diamondbacks beat the Giants 8-4 in 1999

In similar fashion to Thursday’s win over the Chicago Cubs, the Arizona Diamondbacks hit five home runs against the Giants on August 4, 1999.

The Diamondbacks beat the Giants 8-4 at Bank One Ballpark in front of a crowd of 41,503 fans.

Highlights include five home runs from the Diamondbacks, including a 4-for-4 performance from Steve Finley and a solo shot from Luis Gonzalez. Some kid from the Giants also hit a solo shot, a J.T. Snow? I heard he was kind of good in his day.

Here’s how the game went down:

The first inning set the tone quickly Brian Anderson retired three of four batters, only allowing one baserunner via walk. The Diamondbacks offense answered with five runs on three homers.

Tony Womack led off the inning with a walk, followed by a two-run shot from Jay Bell. Gonzalez followed it with a solo shot of his own. Matt Williams took the next base on a four-pitch walk.

Giants’ Joe Nathan had yet to retire a single Diamondback. He changed that by striking out Erubiel Durazo. The small victory was short lived as Nathan gave up another two-run shot, this time to Steve Finley. It would be the first of two for Finley that night.

With a 5-0 lead, the Diamondbacks cruised for three more innings behind the pitching of Anderson. He retired nine straight batters without striking out a single one.

Arizona tacked on two more runs via the long ball. Anderson would add a solo shot of his own in the second inning, while Finley would add his second homer of the night in the third inning.

The Giants’ offense was unable to answer until the fifth inning, then Anderson gave up the Giants first home run, followed by two runs in the sixth.

The Diamondbacks held a 7-3 lead heading into the back end of the game.

Finley scored on a sac-fly in the bottom of the sixth, bringing the lead to 8-3.

J.T. Snow hit a solo homerun off of Diamondbacks’ reliever Gregg Olson in the ninth, but the Giants ultimately lost.

The win gave the Diamondbacks a 3.5 game lead over the Giants in the divisional race. But, the Giants would also lose the series to the Diamondbacks and go on to lose their next three series, falling 7.5 games back in second place.

The Giants finished the season 14 games behind the Diamondbacks, but still in second place.

The Diamondbacks would go on to win the NL West in 1999, however, they fell to the New York Mets in the NLDS (3-1).

In 16 total games on Aug. 4, the Diamondbacks have won only seven of them. Two of those games have come against the San Francisco Giants, including the 1999 win.