Thursday, October 03, 2002
Giants 8, Braves 5
The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Barry Bonds can't win a postseason series all by himself. It looks as though he has plenty of help.
The San Francisco Giants showed they are much more than a one-man team in Game 1 of the NL division playoffs. Russ Ortiz pitched seven strong innings, while the rest of the lineup knocked around Atlanta's vaunted pitching staff in an 8-5 victory Wednesday.
“Barry deserves the notoriety,” Ortiz said. “But I think even Barry would say there's a lot of guys who contribute to this team.”
Bonds, an overwhelming favorite for his fifth MVP award, went 1-for-4 with an intentional walk, a throwing error and another “no comment” for the media.
His teammates did plenty of damage against Tom Glavine, though.
The Giants scored three runs in the second inning and three more in the fourth, sparked both times by the bottom of the order.
“Obviously, you look at their lineup and you don't want Barry to beat you,” Glavine said. “I certainly did a good job of that, but some of the other guys stepped up.”
J.T. Snow, Benito Santiago and Rich Aurilia each had two RBIs.
Bonds, who came in with a .196 postseason average, was limited to a meaningless single in the third. He hit a drive in the eighth that cleared the center-field wall, but perennial Gold Glover Andruw Jones leaped above the yellow line to make the catch.
Bonds watched a replay of the catch on the video board as he trudged off the field, even managing a smile.
He's more concerned with capturing his first World Series ring, having never even been on a winning team in his first five postseason appearances. Bonds lost twice to the Braves in the early '90s while playing for Pittsburgh.
The wild-card Giants grabbed a crucial edge in the best-of-five series against the East champion Braves, who led the league with 101 wins in claiming their 11th straight division title.
“That's how we've been playing all season,” Reggie Sanders said. “You just haven't noticed it. We're hot.”
Game 2 is Thursday night, with Kirk Rueter starting for the Giants against Kevin Millwood.
Down 8-2, Gary Sheffield and Javy Lopez homered in the eighth against Tim Worrell to get the Braves close. Atlanta had its chance in the ninth, but Robb Nen got Sheffield to ground into a game-ending double play with two runners on for a save.
Lopez's two-run homer came after Santiago dropped a soft popup near the Braves dugout that should have been the third out.
Santiago, an All-Star catcher, redeemed himself by leaning into a photographer's box to grab Marcus Giles' popup with a runner on to end the inning.
“Benito would have run through a wall to catch that popup,” Aurilia said.
Glavine was making his 31st postseason start — and perhaps his last in Atlanta. His contract is up at the end of the season, and the Braves will now have to win at least one game in San Francisco to reach the NL championship series for the 10th time in the last 12 seasons.
Glavine surrendered 10 hits in five innings, leaving with his team behind 6-2. The Giants followed their scouting reports, going up the middle or to the opposite field with most of his outside pitches.
“They seemed to take the approach against me, kind of like the whole league does, to just hit the ball where it was pitched,” Glavine said. “They just hit it where we didn't have anybody.”
San Francisco even scored against Chris Hammond, only the third reliever since 1900 to post an ERA below 1.00 while pitching at least 70 innings.
Santiago hit a two-out, two-run double off Hammond in the sixth — the first runs allowed by the left-hander since June 30.
“We've been playing some good baseball, regardless of who's pitching,” Santiago said.
Ortiz shut down the Braves in just his second postseason appearance. Atlanta managed only five hits off the Giants starter — just one after Glavine's two-run single in the second pulled the Braves to 3-2.
Santiago, batting behind Bonds, had three hits. And the guys behind him contributed five hits and three RBIs.
David Bell had an RBI single in the second and, along with Ortiz, started the fourth-inning outburst. They hit back-to-back singles with two outs, and the Giants went on to score three times.
Glavine dropped to 12-14 in the playoffs, missing a chance to break a deadlock with teammate John Smoltz as baseball's winningest postseason pitcher.
He did break a tie with teammate Greg Maddux to become the losingest postseason pitcher.
Notes: The 10 hits given up by Glavine matched his postseason high. ... Every Giants starter had a hit by the sixth inning. ... The crowd of 41,903 was about 8,000 short of a sellout. ... Hammond had to leave the game with a strained neck after Santiago's two-run double. “I'm not sure about his status,” manager Bobby Cox said. “His neck is really stiff. He's having trouble bending it in any direction.”
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Giants 8, Braves 5