Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Giants widen wild-card lead
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — Dusty Baker received a courtesy call Tuesday morning from Colorado manager Clint Hurdle, who explained why his top two players would not be in the lineup against Los Angeles.
It didn't matter.
Baker's San Francisco Giants won again, and Hurdle's depleted lineup beat the Dodgers — moving the Giants closer to clinching the NL wild card.
Barry Bonds hit his 45th homer and Benito Santiago drove in four runs as the Giants defeated the San Diego Padres 12-3 Tuesday night.
Russ Ortiz won his sixth straight start for the Giants, who have won four in a row and six of seven to move three games ahead of Los Angeles in the wild-card race. The Dodgers lost 1-0 to Colorado.
Hurdle let Baker know that Todd Helton's wife was having a baby and Larry Walker was sidelined with an eye problem. Baker appreciated not having to learn it just from the box score in his morning newspaper.
“He said he respects me and the job I do,” Baker said. “It was a manager-to-manager courtesy. He said, 'We're going to get after them' just the way they got after us.”
Los Angeles has five games left and the Giants have four, plus a possible makeup game Monday in Atlanta.
Seconds after the final out in LA, the Pacific Bell Park out-of-town scoreboard was updated with an “F” for final score and fans started chanting “Beat LA! Beat LA!” just as they have been for weeks.
Bonds drove a 1-1 pitch over the wall in right field for a two-run homer in the seventh off Mike Bynum. It was the 612th career homer for Bonds, who also drew his major league-leading 64th and 65th intentional walks, giving him 193 total.
Before his team played Tuesday, Baker stressed it would take some timely hitting by Santiago in the No. 5 hole — following Jeff Kent and Bonds — for the Giants to be successful in the playoffs.
And Santiago showed just that on a misty San Francisco night, in which the moisture hovered just above the field for most of the game.
The veteran catcher was a homer shy of the cycle. He hit a two-run triple to the wall in right-center off Oliver Perez (3-5) in the three-run third. After sliding into third, he immediately hopped up and pumped his fist.
Kent drove in the first run of the inning with a bloop single to shallow right-center. After a single by Bonds, the pair moved up on a wild pitch, then scored on the hit by Santiago.
The 37-year-old Santiago also had an RBI single in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in a four-run sixth. He doubled in the seventh.
He sat out a two-game suspension last week after being accused of bumping umpire Mark Hirschbeck in a game against San Diego at Pac Bell on Sept. 15.
“I am fresh,” said Santiago, who didn't know he was close to the cycle and says there's still time in his career to do it. “Maybe the suspension helped me out. I'm 37 but I feel like 29.”
Ortiz (14-10) retired the first seven batters and did not allow a hit until a fourth-inning single to Phil Nevin.
The right-hander allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings, striking out five. He left to a standing ovation when he gave way to Scott Eyre. Ortiz waved his glove and tipped his hat to the crowd as a dollar bill reading “In Russ We Trust” appeared on the scoreboard.
Ortiz is one win shy of his career-best winning streak, and he could match it Sunday against Houston.
“The bottom line is just being consistent with everything,” he said. “Our starting pitching is pretty solid and the way the guys have been swinging the bats and playing defense, you have to feel good. We're having a lot of fun but we're still doing our jobs.”
San Diego manager Bruce Bochy played with Santiago early on, before a car wreck derailed Santiago's career for a short time four years ago.
“He's done a great job of resurrecting his career,” Bochy said. “He's matured as a player and he's smarter as a catcher and hitter. I'm happy for him.”
San Francisco's Reggie Sanders hit a solo homer with two outs in the second that went just over the outstretched glove of left fielder Ray Lankford.
The Giants' sixth inning featured a bases-loaded walk by Bynum to J.T. Snow. Bonds and Sanders, who both walked, scored on David Bell's two-run single, and Santiago had the sacrifice fly that scored Kenny Lofton.
Perez allowed four runs and six hits in four innings.
Notes: The Giants' Tsuyoshi Shinjo led off the seventh with a single to break a four-game hitless streak. ... Bonds has walked 33 times against San Diego this season. ... San Francisco is three games behind first-place Arizona, the closest the Giants have been to the Diamondbacks in two months. ... Ortiz has a 2.34 ERA during his win streak and has a lifetime regular season record of 16-4 after August.
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Giants widen wild-card lead 
