Tuesday, July 16, 2002
Giants 6, Diamondbacks 3
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Even though rookie Ryan Jensen didn't have his best stuff, it was enough.
Jensen won his fourth straight start as the San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-3 Monday night to narrow the NL West race.
The Giants moved within 1 1/2 games of the division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers, who lost to St. Louis 4-2. The Diamondbacks are a half-game out in second place.
Jensen (10-6) allowed two runs on eight hits over 5 2-3 innings.
I think I was like, effectively wild,” he said. “When I needed the pitches I made them.”
San Francisco's bats helped him. David Bell hit a three-run home run and J.T. Snow added a solo homer.
“It's all about teamwork,” former Diamondbacks outfielder Reggie Sanders said. “Some nights the pitchers are going to have it, some nights the hitters are going to have it. You pick each other up.”
Jensen is the first Giants' rookie to win 10 games since John Burkett went 14-7 in 1990.
Robb Nen worked the ninth for the Giants, who have won six of their last seven games. He gave up an RBI single to Luis Gonzalez.
Rick Helling (7-8) has lost three straight starts and has allowed 23 home runs, most in the NL. He went three innings, allowing five runs on five hits.
“There have been a lot of games lately where we can't seem to come up with the big hit when we need it most,” Arizona manager Bob Brenley said.
The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the first. Bell drew a leadoff walk, Jeff Kent doubled off the top of the left-field wall and Sanders had a sacrifice fly.
Arizona tied it in the second on Rod Barajas' RBI single.
Bell hit his three-run homer into the left-field bleachers in the second, giving the Giants a 4-1 lead. Snow added a solo homer to left in the third.
Snow, who has four home runs overall this season, hasn't homered at Pacific Bell Park since May 8 last season against Montreal, when he hit two.
Jensen loaded the bases with one out in the fifth. Steve Finley fouled out but Jensen walked Quinton McCracken to make it 5-2.
Barry Bonds hit an RBI double in the sixth.
Those guys won it for us tonight,” Jensen said. “Anytime you can get a lead — especially when you don't have your best stuff — it helps.”
Bonds was intentionally walked by Helling the first two times he came up, giving the Giants' slugger 41 such walks this season — four shy of Willie McCovey's single-season major league record of 45 in 1969.
Arizona third baseman Matt Williams, who homered Sunday in his third game back after spending the first half of the season on the disabled list, was not in the starting lineup against the Giants.
Williams, a longtime former Giant, was on the DL with a broken leg and a dislocated ankle. He appeared as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning and struck out.
All-Star catcher Damian Miller missed his third straight game for the Diamondbacks with lower back pain. He left Friday night's game against the Dodgers with back spasms and has been listed as day-to-day.
Barajas started at catcher for Arizona, but the team also called up minor leaguer Chad Moeller, who was batting .318 with 10 homers and 48 RBIs for Triple-A Tucson.
Notes: The Giants moved ahead in the season series against Arizona, 6-5. ... To make room for Moeller on the roster, the Diamondbacks designated outfielder Jose Guillen for assignment ... The U.S. Olympic Committee scouted the San Francisco Bay Area's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games on Monday, and were greeted at Pacific Bell Park by Hall of Famers Willie Mays and McCovey. ... The Giants honored former pitcher Mark Gardner before the game in an emotional ceremony to call attention to the California Transplant Donor Network. His wife, Lori, Gardner had a liver transplant in 1998. Gardner retired in the offseason. ... Bonds is just the second player to have two seasons of 40 or more intentional walks, following McCovey with 45 in 1969 and 40 in 1970. Bonds was walked intentionally 43 times in 1993.
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Giants 6, Diamondbacks 3 
