Cardinals Didn’t Intend This

SAN FRANCISCO -- Will they ever learn?

Benito Santiago knows that the man ahead of him in the San Francisco Giant lineup, Barry Bonds, is the greatest single-season home-run hitter in major league history. Santiago knows that he is a 37-year-old catcher who was thought to be at the end of his career a few years ago.

So he says he understands when teams walk Bonds over and over to get to him. Santiago says he doesn’t take it personally, that his manager, Dusty Baker, tells him not to.

But inside, Santiago seethes with emotion and aches for the chance to show them the error of their ways.

He got the perfect chance Sunday night at Pacific Bell Park, Game 4 of the National League championship series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The score was tied in the eighth inning with two out and Bonds coming up against St. Louis right-hander Rick White.

Everybody in the ballpark knew what was coming. Sure enough, four intentional balls later, the spotlight was on Santiago.

Santiago had taken a called third strike on his last trip to the plate against White. This time he worked the count full.

St. Louis pitching coach Dave Duncan, in a visit to the mound, had told White, “You don’t have to center cut this to him.”

White tried a sinker, the same pitch that got Santiago in his previous at-bat. This time it turned into a center cut to rival the best of any steakhouse in Union Square. Santiago took a corkscrew swing and hit a towering home run to left, causing the sellout crowd of 42,676 to let out a roar that could be heard all the way across the bay in Oakland.

With clutch relief by closer Robb Nen in the ninth, the Giants held on for a 4-3 victory and a commanding three games to one lead in the best-of-seven series.

A San Francisco victory tonight in Game 5 would mean the first all-California World Series since 1989.

“It’s just unbelievable,” Santiago said of his blast. “I don’t know how to describe it.”

As Santiago reached the dugout, shortstop Rich Aurilia yelled, “Way to go, you old .... “

Even Aurilia said he couldn’t quite figure out how Santiago, with his body twisted at an odd angle, got enough power to hit it out.

“Well,” Santiago said, “I think to hit a ball like that, you have to put a little strain on it.”

For much of Sunday evening, it appeared the night would belong to another old veteran whose career was thought to be over. St. Louis right-hander Andy Benes, Sunday night’s starter, was in rehab for a knee injury and contemplating retirement when pitcher Darryl Kile died in June. The Cardinals called up Benes and he responded with much of his old effectiveness.

But never more so than Sunday.

Benes was given a two-run lead in the first inning, Jim Edmonds driving in one with a groundout and Tino Martinez singling home another.

Benes held that lead, shutting out the Giants on two hits into the sixth inning.

But then he walked Kent and, forced to pitch to Bonds, pitched around him, walking the Giant left fielder as well.

St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa called on White to pitch to Santiago. But White didn’t fare so well with the next batter, J.T. Snow, who hammered a double off the wall in left-center to tie the score.

With Nen on the mound, the ninth inning began with a strikeout of pinch-hitter Kerry Robinson. But not an out. Santiago couldn’t control the third strike, the ball getting away for a wild pitch, and Robinson reached safely.

Fernando Vina followed with a single and, after a groundout, Edmonds singled home a run, leaving the potential tying run at third and the potential winning run at first.

Up came Albert Pujols.

Down he went, Nen putting him away with a hanging slider.

“I was just trying to hit the ball in the air,” Pujols said. “He was making a lot of mistakes on that at-bat, but I just kept missing. He threw me a hanging slider. He threw me a fastball. He just got lucky. What can you do?”

Nen’s “luck” would have to stretch over one more batter, J.D. Drew. With a 2-2 count on Drew, Nen backed off the mound, then struck him out with another slider.

Afterward La Russa wasn’t about to second-guess his decision not to pitch to Bonds.

“He is the most dangerous hitter in the game right now,” La Russa said, “and it’s tough to walk into that clubhouse after giving him a chance to beat you.”