Giants Making Long Story Short

The St. Louis Cardinals solved one of baseball’s great mysteries Thursday night: how to pitch effectively to Barry Bonds.

The game’s greatest slugger struck out twice, flied out and walked.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, they didn’t have a clue how to solve a new problem: the resurgence of Bonds’ teammate, shortstop Rich Aurilia, whose May elbow surgery had left him punchless and powerless for more than half the season.

On Thursday night, Aurilia stepped back into character and, for at least one night, into Bonds’ big shoes, slugging two home runs to back the superlative pitching of Jason Schmidt and lead the San Francisco Giants to a 4-1 victory in front of 52,195 and a seemingly commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League championship series.

The scene now moves to San Francisco for Games 3, 4 and 5 Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

“No way is this series over. If it is, we should just stay here,” said Woody Williams, the St. Louis right-hander who returned from a pulled rib muscle to go six innings in the losing effort.

Sixteen teams have fallen behind, 2-0, in the league championship series and only two have come back to win. One of those teams was the 1985 Cardinals, who beat the Dodgers. The other was the 1984 San Diego Padres, who came back against the Chicago Cubs.

Aurilia, who dropped from 37 home runs in 2001 to 15 this season because of the injury, homered both times off Williams, in the first inning with the bases empty and in the fifth with a man aboard, the two balls landing close to the same spot in left-center.

“They told me the same guy got both of them,” Aurilia said with a laugh.

Those three runs held up for much of the night because of Schmidt and solid Giant defense. Schmidt went 7 2/3 innings, holding the Cardinals to a run and four hits. He struck out eight and walked one.

“Which is better, excellent or outstanding?” Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa asked reporters. “Woody was outstanding, but Schmidt was excellent.”

Aurilia was just as impressed.

“It was just an overpowering performance,” Aurilia said, “one of the best performances I’ve seen one of our pitchers throw all year.”

You couldn’t tell from how he warmed up in the bullpen, according to Schmidt.

“I usually don’t go off my performance in the bullpen,” he said, “because it’s usually terrible. If I went off that, I wouldn’t throw a strike.”

Yet as overpowering as Schmidt was at times, the tone of the game might have been different had it not been for a key play in the third inning.

The Cardinals, trailing, 1-0, had runners at second and third when Fernando Vina lifted a fly ball to shallow center. J.D. Drew tested Kenny Lofton’s arm and tried to score, but the throw was there and Giant catcher Benito Santiago made the tag to keep the Cardinals off the scoreboard.

“That was actually a play I almost forgot about,” Schmidt said afterward in the euphoria of victory. “That might have been the play of the game right there.”

Although he had thrown 119 pitches, Schmidt seemed to be cruising when he struck out Mike Matheny for the second out in the eighth inning and his third consecutive strikeout.

But then Eduardo Perez, pinch-hitting, homered to left and Manager Dusty Baker took the ball out of Schmidt’s talented right hand.

After reliever Scott Eyre gave up a single to Vina, Baker went to his closer, Robb Nen, who has had more than 40 saves in four of his last five seasons.

Nen got out of the inning when Ramon Martinez, in for Aurilia, narrowly missed a collision with teammate Jeff Kent after fielding a ground ball, managing to touch second for the force as the sliding Vina slammed into Martinez’ left leg.

The Giants added a run in the ninth. J.T. Snow tripled and came home on a squeeze bunt by Martinez, yelling, “Way to play the game,” as he crossed home plate.

How long has it been since Baker last called for a squeeze?

“Can’t remember,” Baker said. “Probably five years. It will probably be another five years before we do another one.”

The bottom of the ninth began ominously for the Giants when Jim Edmonds’ fly ball down the left-field line popped out of Bonds’ glove, Edmonds winding up at second.

But Nen retired the next three Cardinals. Edgar Renteria was retired on a ground ball to short for the final out. He dove headfirst into first base in a futile attempt to beat the throw.

And as the rest of the players trotted off the field, there Renteria stayed, head down, a fitting symbol for a team whose heads figure to be down all the way to San Francisco.