|
BEN WALKER, AP Baseball Writer
October 14, 2002— At long last,
Barry Bonds will get his chance.
Kenny Lofton hit an RBI single with two
outs in the ninth inning that sent Bonds
to his first World Series as the San Francisco
Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1
Monday night to win the NL championship
series.
Bonds did his part in Game 5, hitting a
tying sacrifice fly in the eighth off a
determined Matt Morris. And now, in his
17th season, baseball's biggest star will
finally get a chance to play on baseball's
biggest stage.
The first all wild-card World Series will
start Saturday night at Anaheim when the
Angels take on the Giants.
Bonds, often criticized for being selfish
and not interacting with his teammates,
led the sprint from the Giants' dugout to
congratulate Lofton. The four-time MVP was
the first player off the bench to reach
him.
"We played great," Bonds said.
"We've got a tough series ahead of
us. The Angels have been playing great in
the clutch. It's going to be down to the
wire with them.
"We've got some gusty guys out here,
just like the Angels," he said. "Who
would've thought two wild-card teams would
make it? That's just amazing."
The Cardinals, playing on emotion since
the death of Darryl Kile in June, once again
could not get a big hit when it counted.
And the Giants took advantage, breaking
through against Morris to tie it in the
eighth. In the ninth, Morris retired the
first two batters before David Bell and
Shawon Dunston singled.
At that point, Steve Kline relieved and
Lofton pulled the first pitch into right
field. Bell scored easily, sending the Giants
to their first World Series since 1989 as
the sellout crowd of 42,673 erupted at Pacific
Bell Park.
Lofton especially enjoyed the party, having
been booed at Busch Stadium last week when
his objection to an inside pitch triggered
a bench-clearing skirmish.
Bonds, at 38, jumped up and down with the
NLCS MVP, 37-year-old catcher Benito Santiago.
It was his home run in Game 4 that gave
the Giants a 3-1 lead in this series.
"This is a dream come true," Santiago
said. "I can't be happier than this."
Bonds got the chance of a lifetime in the
eighth, coming up with the bases loaded,
one out and the Giants down 1-0. The home-run
king and first-time batting champion delivered
-- sort of -- with a fly ball that evened
it.
Tim Worrell, the third Giants reliever,
wound up with the win. The Cardinals stuck
with Morris until the final batter, letting
him pitch in a game that honored his mentor
-- Kile.
Morris had a direct impact on the Cardinals
breaking a scoreless tie in the seventh.
Blanked for six innings by Kirk Rueter,
St. Louis got going against reliever Felix
Rodriguez when Mike Matheny opened with
a double off Lofton's glove in center.
Morris followed with a nice bunt to the
left side and Rodriguez made a poor decision,
trying to get Matheny at third when there
was no play. The Cardinals, unable to get
big hits throughout the series, managed
to get a run on Fernando Vina's sacrifice
fly.
Morris, hit hard in losing the opener, kept
the Giants virtually silent as he zipped
through the first nine batters. He held
San Francisco hitless until two outs in
the fifth, when a double by Bell wound up
bringing a howl from Giants manager Dusty
Baker and the crowd.
Santiago drew a leadoff walk and was still
at first base with two outs when Bell blooped
an opposite-field double to right. With
third-base coach Sonny Jackson putting up
a two-handed stop sign, Santiago bumped
into third baseman Miguel Cairo as he rounded
the bag and retreated.
The fans wanted an obstruction call to send
Santiago home, and so did Baker as he sprung
out of the dugout to discuss it with third-base
umpire Jeff Nelson. But Nelson's call was
absolutely correct, according to Rule 7.06.
The rule states that it's the umpire's judgment
on whether a runner would have advanced
without the interference. Since right fielder
Eduardo Perez was already making an accurate
relay throw as Santiago was reaching third
base, it was clear he would not have scored.
"I was yelling 'obstruction,' too,"
said umpire supervisor Steve Palermo, who
was in the press box. "It can't get
better than this. Jeff Nelson shined tonight.
Not only with his call and judgment, but
with the application of the rule.
"If he was 100 percent sure that the
runner would score, then he would award
him home plate," Palermo said.
Morris made sure no one scored when he got
Rueter on a comebacker, and he left the
mound while the crowd booed.
The Cardinals, meanwhile, could not break
through against Rueter, who won the opener
at Busch Stadium. Perez, taking the place
of slumping Tino Martinez in the lineup,
ended the first and third innings by stranding
two runners both times.
|
