Sunday, August 01, 1999

GIANTS 11, REDS 1

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Bonds homers twice off Villone

BY JOHN FAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jeffrey Hammonds nearly runs into the Reds' ball boy as Hammonds, Chris Stynes and Sean Casey chase a foul ball. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Barry Bonds has struggled with injuries this year. Barry Bonds has struggled to find himself at the plate. But Barry Bonds is still Barry Bonds.

        He showed that Saturday night. Bonds hit a three-run home run in his first at-bat and a two-run homer in his second. That was too much for the Reds, who fell 11-1 to the San Francisco Giants before a crowd of 31,771 at Cinergy Field.

        “I made one bad pitch, and he crushed it,” Reds starting pitcher Ron Villone said. “I made one good pitch, and he still got it out.”

        The two home runs gave Bonds four in two days against the Reds. Bonds will be one player who is sad to see Cinergy close. His two homers gave him 28 at Cinergy/Riverfront. Only Mike Schmidt, who had 29 with Philadelphia, hit more at the stadium.

        Bonds' bombs led to the worst start by Villone since his 6-run, ô-inning disaster June 19 against Milwaukee. Villone went six innings, allowing seven runs, eight hits and walked four. He struck out two.

Ron Villone looks around after giving up a three-run homer. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Villone has been either good or bad. In his five good starts, his ERA is 1.20. In his six bad starts, it's 10.58.

        “I wish I knew what it was,” Villone said. “There's a couple pitches I like back. But after the bad inning I had a strong inning.”

        The loss snapped a two-game winning streak by the Reds and was their second loss in eight games. It dropped them 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Astros.

        Villone (5-4) got in trouble immediately. He walked F.P. Santangelo to start the game. Bill Mueller followed with a single. Villone got Charlie Hayes to pop to center.

        That brought up Bonds, who hit two solo homers off Denny Neagle Friday night. Villone got a strike on the first pitch. He then knocked Bonds down with an inside fastball.

        Bad idea. Bonds hit the next pitch 427 feet into the green seats above right field, and the Giants led 3-0.

        Hayes led off the third with a groundball that Larkin fielded but had no play. This time, Bonds hit a high shot that just made the seats in right. The home run gave Bonds 38 multiple-homer games in his career. It was his 427th career home run, moving him past Billy Williams into 25th place on the all-time list.

Sean Casey trys to take out Ramon Martinez and break up a double play. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Bonds hasn't played up to his usual high standards this year. He hasn't played at all, in fact, a lot of the year. He's missed 50 games with an elbow injury and, more recently, a groin injury.

        He hit .105 over a 12-game period before getting hot recently. He is 9-for-26 (.346) with four home runs and 12 RBI in his last eight games.

        Villone did stick around long enough to give the Reds' bullpen a rest.

        “Thank God, we got six innings out of Villone,” McKeon said. “At least we could save some guys back for (today).”

        Gabe White pitched a scoreless seventh, then Stan Belinda finished it, allowing three runs in eighth and one in the ninth.

        The Reds, meanwhile, could do nothing against San Francis co left-hander Shawn Estes. Estes entered the game 6-6 with a 5.09 ERA. But he has the Reds' number. He pitched eight innings of three-hit, one-run ball against Cincinnati last Sunday, a game the Reds won in the 14 innings.

        His ERA is 5.36 against the rest of baseball and 1.12 against the Reds.

        Saturday, he faced the minimum nine batters through three innings. The Reds had the makings of a rally in the fourth but it fizzled. With one out, Jeffrey Hammonds singled. Sean Casey followed with a single that broke a season-high 0-for-9 skid. But Greg Vaughn ended the inning by hitting into a double play.

        The Reds finally broke through against Estes in the sixth inning when Hammonds hit his ninth home run.

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