ESPN.com - MLB Playoffs 2002 - Simply put, just not Bonds' day
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Wednesday, October 23
Updated: October 24, 4:34 AM ET
 
Simply put, just not Bonds' day

By Andy Latack
ESPN The Magazine

SAN FRANCISCO -- The first three games of this World Series were a postseason party, hosted by Barry Bonds, with everyone in attendance having the time of their life. But Game 4 was the morning after -- everyone gone and Bonds left to sweep up the kitchen, pluck cigarette butts from the lawn and wake up that weird guy sleeping on the sofa. With a serious headache to boot.

Because for the first time all Series, Bonds was as much of a non-factor as the greatest home-run hitter in the game can be. The Angels made sure of that by intentionally walking him in three of his four at-bats. But unlike Game 2, when Bonds also got three free passes, his teammates didn't drive him in. The Giants won Game 4 by the score of 4-3, but Bonds didn't do anything bad. He didn't do anything good. No home run to La Jolla. No theatrical strikeouts. Barry Bonds was dang near invisible on Wednesday.

The Barr-O-Meter
During each World Series game, the Barr-O-Meter will measure the degree to which Anaheim pitchers challenge Barry Bonds. Here's a quick summary of what went down in Game 4:

1st inning: Intentionally walked with runners on first and third.
3rd inning: Intentionally walked with runners on second and third.
5th inning: Intentionally walked with a runner on second.
7th inning: Grounded out to first base.
THROUGH GAME 4
AB H/HR Walks R/RBI Balls Strikes
8 3/3 9 5/4 44 18

And he kept up the act in the Pac Bell clubhouse after the game. "Not today, guys," he said to the crowd of people around his locker, which was approximately the size of the crowd in the stands Wednesday night. "Go talk to somebody else." And he meant it. The mime down on Fisherman's Wharf said more than Barry on Wednesday.

In this case, it's pretty easy to see why Bonds is as salty as San Francisco Bay. Imagine this: You love nothing better than to vaporize a baseball, discard your bat, pimp your 450-foot home run almost all the way to first base and then kiss your batboy son at home when he's there. Yet, in Game 4, you only get one real at-bat to do that, and every other time you're intentionally walked. Not even walked regularly, where there's a chance the pitcher will make a mistake you can deliver to some guy in a paddle boat.

But Angels manager Mike Scioscia doesn't feel bad for Bonds. See, Barry's seven postseason homers, including three in the Series' first three games, made history. And Scioscia would prefer that Bonds' long balls stay just that -- history.

"I don't need to see Barry hitting any more home runs to gain any more respect for his talent," said Scioscia, who made Bonds the first player to ever get three intentional walks in a Series game since they started keeping that stat in 1955. "Right now, he's locked in."

And so, while Angels rookie starter John Lackey threw 95 pitches -- just 54 for strikes -- to the Giants on Wednesday, he threw 12 pitches and zero strikes to Bonds. It was Lackey's 24th birthday on Wednesday, and his gift was not to get brutalized by a Bonds blast. As he often does, Barry watched the customary four pitches, removed his elbow pad and trudged to first wearing a disgusted look.

The first two times after Bonds was walked, No. 5 hitter Benito Santiago played The Rally Assassin, grounding into inning-ending double plays with the bases loaded. The third time Santiago finally produced, singling Rich Aurilia in from second, but the inning ended with Bonds stranded on second as Reggie Sanders struck out.

Goin' deep
With Barry Bonds' two-run homer in Game 3 and Troy Glaus' two-run homer in Game 4, Bonds and Glaus have now hit the most home runs in a single postseason:
Player Team Year Homers
Bonds S.F. 2002 7
Glaus Ana. 2002 7
Robertson Pitt. 1971 6
Dykstra Phi. 1993 6
Griffey Sea. 1995 6
Williams NYY 1996 6
Thome Cle. 1998 6
Jackson NYY 1977 5
Lopes L.A. 1998 5
Stargell Pitt. 1979 5
Gonzalez Tex. 1996 5
McGriff Atl. 1996 5

Bonds' one official at-bat of the night came in the seventh, against Francisco Rodriguez, the 20-year-old reliever with the slider so scary kids are going to start dressing like it for Halloween. Bonds grounded out to first, much like he did when the two squared off in Game 2, and we can only hope we see these two square off a few more times before this thing ends. In the next inning, the Giants finally got to Rodriguez, with David Bell driving in J.T. Snow for the game-winning (but unearned) run.

Barry's teammates delivered this victory. That's why, if he wants reporters to talk to somebody else, they're game. A few lockers away, Santiago joked about the Rally Monkey. "I don't know what happens with that thing, but every time he shows up they seem to score runs," Santiago said. "Everybody has their thing (that brings them good luck)."

And what is Santiago's good-luck charm?

"Not hitting into double plays," he cracked. Around Santiago, the rest of the Giants were also enjoying their Series-evening victory immensely. And it was a major, major victory -- and, for once, one that Barry Bonds didn't have much of a hand in.

Bonds owned the first three games. He'll probably own the next two or three, depending on how far this thing goes. But it just wasn't happening for him on Wednesday.

It's like Barry himself said before making his exit from the locker room: Not today.

Andy Latack writes for ESPN The Magazine.





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