Thursday, June 20, 2002
Giants 8, Devil Rays 0
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Jason Schmidt struck out 11 batters in his first career shutout as the San Francisco Giants beat the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 8-0 Wednesday night without retaliating for the pitch thrown behind Barry Bonds a night earlier.
Given his mediocre warmup and a general malaise that dogged him all evening, Schmidt didn't expect to end his shutout drought. But as the zeros piled up, Schmidt began to concentrate through his funk in an effort to stay in the game.
“I just wanted to get it over with and get out of here,” Schmidt said. “I just felt tired, and my adrenalin wasn't pumping. I caught some breaks. They hit some balls hard, and we made some great plays behind me.”
Schmidt's nonchalant attitude belied a blistering performance. It was Schmidt's fifth straight outstanding outing since an injury-plagued start to his season.
In his 164th career start, Schmidt (3-2) threw a five-hitter for his seventh career complete game. Among active pitchers, only Jason Bere (199 starts) has been waiting longer for his first shutout.
“You feel secure when a guy like that starts,” Giants manager Dusty Baker said. “We were a little worried about his pitch count, but he wanted to get the complete game and the shutout.”
The Devil Rays got just two runners to second base against Schmidt, who struck out at least one batter in every inning except the fifth and the ninth. He's 3-1 with a 1.50 ERA and 46 strikeouts in his last five starts.
“He knew where to go to get the strikeouts,” Tampa Bay manager Hal McRae said. “He wasn't popping the ball the first two innings, but by the third, he turned it up a notch. He kicked it to another level.”
Jeff Kent hit a two-run homer and scored three times as San Francisco recovered from an embarrassing 8-3 loss Tuesday night to baseball's worst team.
A day after Bonds nearly charged the mound in response to a pitch behind his knees by Tampa Bay rookie Travis Harper, the Devil Rays again threw inside to the Giants. But Bonds and his teammates weren't angry about it, since it was obvious that Ryan Rupe (5-9) had no idea where the ball was going.
“I had nothing going on,” Rupe said. “I hit the first batter with a changeup. I throw one slider, and it hits a guy in the back. It was a pretty bad outing altogether. Every bad pitch I threw, they hit — and should have. There were a lot of bad pitches to choose from.”
Rupe, grimacing with each errant toss, hit Reggie Sanders to open the game, then hit Kent three batters later. He then plunked Damon Minor with a runner on base in the third inning, setting up Brent Abernathy's throwing error that led to San Francisco's fifth run.
“If you get emotional about getting hit with a hanging curveball, then something is wrong with you,” Baker said with a grin. “It was pretty obvious he didn't know where it was going.”
Bonds, 1-for-3 with a single and a walk, said he would be willing to retaliate for inside pitches against him if the Giants' pitchers wouldn't do it. He probably wasn't talking about the lowly Devil Rays — and Bonds even admitted that Harper hadn't tried to hit him.
Instead, the Giants took care of it by battering Rupe. Benito Santiago's two-run double capped San Francisco's four-run first inning, which included RBI singles by Minor and David Bell.
After allowing just 10 runs while winning three of the first four games of a nine-game interleague road trip, the Devil Rays were blown out early.
Rupe allowed 10 hits and seven runs in four innings for the Devil Rays, whose two-game winning streak was snapped. It was Rupe's fourth straight loss and his second-shortest start of the season.
Notes: Randy Winn, a San Francisco Bay area native, singled for Tampa Bay in the third inning to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 13 games. ... Schmidt retired 10 straight batters before Aubrey Huff walked in the seventh. ... Bonds, Sanders and Rich Aurilia left the game in the eighth to rest. ... NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett, in town for the Sears Point race this weekend, took batting practice at Pacific Bell Park. Jarrett later chatted with Willie Mays in the Giants' clubhouse. ... In the sixth inning, Jeff Kent flied out to right against Devil Rays left-hander Steven Kent. They're not related.
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Giants 8, Devil Rays 0 
