Bonds Delivers Message With a Sweet Swing

The first fastball didn’t come from the pitcher.

The first fastball came from the pitching coach.

Before Saturday’s World Series opener, Barry Bonds was approached in the batting cage by Bud Black.

“You’re going to get some pitches to hit,” Black told him.

The words flashed in front of Bonds like a red cape.

The message squirted him in the eyes like a lapel flower.

So you’re going to get some pitches to hit, huh Barry?

“And I got one,” said Bonds later, his mouth still watering.

Indeed, in their first battle with the San Francisco Giants, the Angels lived up to their promise to challenge arguably the greatest power hitter ever.

Like a fly challenges a windshield.

Like an ant challenges a foot.

The Angels were good sportsmen, hearty fellows, manly men.

And big fat losers after Bonds’ second-inning homer on his fourth World Series pitch set the tone for the Giants’ 4-3 victory at Edison Field.

“Doesn’t matter if it’s in the World Series or Little League or whatever you guys want to call it,” Giant catcher Benito Santiago with a shrug. “Barry Bonds is Barry Bonds. And if you make a mistake, he will make you pay.”

But the mistake wasn’t in Washburn’s fastball that Bonds launched into the old right-field bullpen.

The mistake was in the approach that Washburn was going to try and beat him with that fastball.

Tried to beat him four straight times on that first at-bat.

Tried once too many.

You know, Superman’s cape and all that.

Second inning, scoreless tie, Bonds stepped to the plate amid boos and flashbulbs and Washburn’s bearded glare.

“I said all week, hopefully he would come up with nobody on base so I could pitch to him, and here it was,” Washburn said.

First pitch, 88-mph fastball outside, ball one.

Second pitch, 88-mph fastball outside, ball two.

Third pitch, 89-mph fastball, Bonds swings and misses, strike one.

Fourth pitch, Bengie Molina sets up outside, Washburn throws another fastball, good 90-mph velocity, but leaves it out across the plate.

Gone.

The ball was hit so hard, everyone in the stadium stopped and stared, including Bonds.

The ball was hit so smoothly, Molina didn’t even hear it hit the bat.

“That’s the amazing thing,” Molina said. “I heard nothing.”

The ball was hit so far, it landed in the old bullpen area alongside the right-field bleachers, nearly nailing the giant Memorial Care Medical Centers sign, about 418 feet way.

The hit felt so historic, Washburn could only smile.

“I made a mistake, he made me pay,” Washburn said. “He’s hit more than 600 home runs, I’m not the first guy to give one up to him. What can you say?”

I don’t know.

How about, “Uncle?”

Indeed, Washburn struck him out on his next at-bat, but it was on a high pitch that would have been ball four.

And, indeed, Bonds grounded out in the sixth inning, but it was on a shot that took a bad hop and nearly skulled first baseman Scott Spiezio.

Scott Schoeneweis must have been watching closely before he was brought into the game in the eighth inning for the specific purpose of pitching to Bonds.

He threw four balls that weren’t even close, walking him.

“He wasn’t trying to walk him,” Molina said. “He just couldn’t find the plate.”

Well, he should have been trying to walk him.

Officially, Saturday, Bonds only made the Angels pay once.

But the Giants could reap dividends for the entire series.

Bonds’ homer gave the Giants a lead they never lost in a game which many figured the Angels needed to win. They must now rely on the hair-pulling pitching of Kevin Appier tonight to avoid a home sweep.

Bonds’ homer also settled down the Giants quicker than the Angels, who struggled with uncharacteristic jitters during the early innings, stranding five runners in scoring position in the first five innings.

“It brought our tension down a little bit, yeah,” Bonds said of his homer.

If it lifted blood pressures in the other dugout, you would never know it.

The Angels continued to maintain afterward that this is the way you must pitch Bonds, and whatever happens, happens.

This space continues to maintain that it could be a series-costing mistake.

“You have got to be aggressive with him,” Black said. “That aggression that cost us in the second inning, it led to the punchout his next time up.”

The only time they weren’t aggressive with Bonds was before the game, when the Molina brothers approached him in left field during the Giants’ batting practice.

Obviously ignoring the long-ignored rules against pregame fraternization, the Molinas spent 10 minutes talking with Bonds while the Giants took batting practice around him.

“I played with him on an all-star team in Japan, but I was worried he wouldn’t remember me, so I was a little timid,” Molina said. “But he was a lot nicer than I thought.”

A little timid. Not a bad idea. The Angels, who lost by fighting with their heart instead of their head, should try it more often.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.