Bonds Takes a Slice Out of the Dodgers

That familiar chant began echoing through Pacific Bell Park in the seventh inning Wednesday night. “Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!” San Francisco fans yelled in unison.

The Dodgers did just that, committing a seventh-inning baserunning blunder that proved costly in a 2-1 loss to the Giants before a sellout crowd of 40,762.

Barry Bonds won the game in the bottom of the ninth for San Francisco, slicing a fly-ball double off reliever Paul Quantrill inside the left-field line to score David Bell from first and snap a 1-1 tie, but the Giants didn’t so much win the game as the Dodgers lost it.

Dave Roberts ran through a stop sign and was doubled off second base in the first inning, and Mark Grudzielanek failed to advance a runner from second with no outs in the seventh and to execute a sacrifice bunt with two on and no outs in the ninth.

But the most glaring mistake came in the seventh, when the Dodgers, who had their win streak ended at four, failed to score despite hitting two doubles.

Trailing, 1-0, Eric Karros opened the seventh with a double to left off Giant starter Ryan Jensen. Grudzielanek flied to center.

Dodger Manager Jim Tracy replaced Karros with seldom-used Hiram Bocachica, who would have a much better chance than Karros of scoring on a hit.

The Dodgers got that hit, as Adrian Beltre rifled a double off the center-field wall, but even though it was clear center fielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo had virtually no chance of catching the ball, Bocachica went back to tag up.

Shinjo played the carom perfectly and fired a throw back to the infield in time to hold Bocachica at third. With the San Francisco infield back, conceding a run, Chad Krueter struck out. Felix Rodriguez came on to retire pinch-hitter Paul Lo Duca on an inning-ending grounder to third.

The Dodgers tied the game with an improbable ninth-inning rally off closer Robb Nen, but that was of no consolation to Bocachica.

“I lost us the ... game, what can I say?” Bocachica said.

Third-base coach Glenn Hoffman said he tried to help.

“I was yelling at him, ‘Halfway! Halfway!’ He turned around to watch it,” Hoffman said. “People were screaming, and he couldn’t hear me. I can’t yell over that many people. It was a mistake. Hopefully he’ll learn from it.”

Wasted was a superb effort by Dodger starter Odalis Perez, who limited the Giants to one run--Shinjo’s fourth-inning solo homer--and three hits in six innings. The left-hander struck out three and walked none in an extremely efficient 55-pitch outing.

But at least Perez wasn’t tagged with the loss. Roberts saved a run with a diving catch of Shinjo’s flare in shallow left-center to strand Ramon Martinez to end the eighth inning, a play that loomed large when the Dodgers tied the game in the ninth.

Nen, who led the National League with 45 saves in 52 chances last season, gave up singles to Brian Jordan and pinch-hitter Dave Hansen to open the inning. Grudzielanek fouled off two bunt attempts before striking out.

Nen shattered Beltre’s bat with a nasty inside pitch, but Beltre got enough of the ball to send a dribbler to third for an infield single, loading the bases. Pinch-hitter Marquis Grissom rolled a grounder to the shortstop hole for an RBI fielder’s choice and a 1-1 tie.

Beltre appeared to beat the throw to second, but umpire Tim Timmons ruled Beltre out on the force. Lo Duca then flied to center, ending the inning.

“There was a call at second base that was missed, and that changed the complexion of the top of the ninth,” Tracy said. “Instead of the bases loaded and one out, we have runners on first and third with two out.”

That play, however, wasn’t as pivotal as the Dodger baserunning errors.

“It was a very tough game to lose, due to the fact we made a couple of mistakes that hurt us,” Tracy said. “From an execution standpoint, we’ve had a high percentage of success on the small aspects of the game, but there’s no guarantee you’re going to get 100% execution over the course of 162 games.”

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*--* Blue-Barry How Barry Bonds has fared against Dodger pitchers in his career: PITCHER AB H HR RBI SO AVG Mulholland 56 18 8 17 5 321 Ashby 51 19 7 11 3 373 Brown 34 8 2 7 5 235 Nomo 29 6 2 4 10 207 Daal 28 9 4 14 4 321 Orosco 23 3 1 3 9 130 Gagne 13 2 0 0 5 154 Quantrill 9 3 1 2 1 333 Perez 7 3 1 1 1 429 Carrara 5 0 0 0 1 000 *--*