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POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
Manny's HR helps Dice-K win a gem
June 16, 2007
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Barry
Bonds' whiff with two on and none out in a five-pitch at-bat was the
scrapbook moment for the 36,381 who showed up in Fenway Park for a
look at the man who is bent on breaking Henry Aaron's home run record
but has stalled out with the finish line in sight.
For the
second straight day, Bonds hit a ball home run distance in his first at-bat,
although today's off Daisuke Matsuzaka veered well wide of the foul pole,
and he remains at 747 home runs, eight shy of Aaron's record. In his last 122
plate appearances (87 at-bats), Bonds has two home runs, dating to May 9.
The
deciding swing of the day was taken by that other slugger of some renown, Manny
Ramirez, who unloaded on Matt Cain with a home run in the fourth, accounting for
the day's only run. Cain took the loss. In 10 of his 15 starts, the Giants have
scored two or fewer runs.
It was
back on June 7 that Curt Schilling beat the Giants' neighbors across the Bay,
the Athletics, with a one-hit, complete-game, 1-0 outing. Matsuzaka's pitching
line wasn't quite as dramatic as Schilling's, but it was just as effective on an
afternoon in which the hitters on both side were unhappy with the size of the
strike zone.
Matsuzaka allowed the Giants just three hits in seven innings, walking three and
striking out eight. His moment of truth came in the sixth, when he set down
Bonds on a groundball with two on and none out, retired Bengie Molina on a liner
to short, then after hitting Nate Schierholtz with a pitch to load the bases,
struck out Rich Aurilia. Reliford rang up Aurilia on a 3-and-2 slider that
looked suspiciously out of the strike zone. Matsuzaka, who ran his record to 8-5
after losing his last three decisions, threw 112 pitches. He gave up a double to
Pedro Feliz in the second, a single to Molina in the fourth, and a single to Ray
Durham after walking Randy Winn to start the sixth.
Ramirez
had gone 50 at-bats and 15 games since his last home run, off the Indians' Cliff
Lee May 28. This was only his ninth home run of the season. He's never had fewer
homers at this date in his career, but he's usually good for at least one streak
of double-digit games in which he doesn't leave the yard. The longest of his
career was 22 games in 2002; in 1999 he went eight games without a home run, the
only season he hasn't had a homerless streak of 10 games or more.
Okajima,
who had pitched a scoreless inning in Friday night's 10-2 rout, walked Winn and
gave up a single to Durham to start the eighth. When he fell behind Bonds,
2-and-0, pitching coach John Farrell paid a visit.
There
was nothing untidy about Jonathan Papelbon's ninth inning, which ended with
Dustin Pedroia making a nice stop on pinch hitter Mark Sweeney's grounder and
throwing him out, Papelbon celebrating his 16th save by pounding his glove with
gusto.
The top
of the order remained the same for the first time since Lugo was bounced from
the top spot Tuesday. J.D. Drew led off, with Dustin Pedroia in the No. 2 hole.
The two combined for eight hits, eight RBIs, and five runs in Friday night's
10-2 win.
Kevin
Youkilis extended his streak of games without an error to 115. The club record
for a first baseman is 119, set by Stuffy McInnis in 1921. Youkilis's last error
at first came last July 4 at Tampa Bay. |
