They Make Walking Bonds No Free Ride

They each drove in one run in a game decided by one, and maybe that’s enough of a promising indication for the San Francisco Giants that the top and bottom half of the Barry Bonds’ sandwich hasn’t gone totally stale.

The situation in Game 4 of the World Series was that the Giants needed to take a bite out of the Angels, needed to avoid going down, 3-1 in games, and they showed enough teeth to prevail, 4-3.

The judicious Angels, of course, took the bat away from Bonds again by walking him three times intentionally, but the struggling Jeff Kent, batting ahead of him, and the comparably struggling Benito Santiago, batting behind him, each drove in a run off John Lackey as the Giants rallied from a 3-0 deficit to tie the score in the fifth inning. David Bell ultimately drove in the decisive run in the eighth after the San Francisco bullpen finally defused that volatile Anaheim offense.

As Manager Dusty Baker would acknowledge later, it becomes a different game for the Giants, and an easier game, when Kent and Santiago are producing, taking the pressure off Bonds and giving opposing managers a bit of a reason, at least, to think twice about walking Bonds.

The result in Game 4, assuring a Game 6 in Anaheim on Saturday night, was especially sweet for Santiago.

He had followed intentional walks to Bonds by grounding into bases-loaded double plays in the first and third innings, and there he was again in the fifth, with runners at first and second following another intentional walk to Bonds.

This time, two for 15 in the Series with one run batted in at that point, he lined a single to center that scored Rich Aurilia with the run that tied the score, 3-3, as Bonds stood at second, applauding Santiago as he stood on first.

Even later, even after the Giants had salvaged the victory, Santiago would say that he wasn’t sure he deserved applause. This was after he found his locker surrounded by reporters to the extent that he had difficulty fighting his way through.

“What’s in there, what’s in there?” the veteran catcher said slyly. “If this is what hitting into double plays gets you, I don’t want to hit into double plays any more.”

He and the reporters laughed at that, but Santiago said he wasn’t laughing after grounding into the second double play.

“I was so disappointed,” he said, “that I didn’t even want to go back to the dugout. Then I told myself, ‘Don’t think about it anymore because you might have a chance to win the game.”

Santiago didn’t win it but at least tied it with his single in the fifth, coming after he had released some of his frustration in the underground batting cage. He called it “a small measure of redemption,” but he understands the pressure and reality of batting behind Bonds, having done it for most of the second half of a season in which he hit 16 home runs and drove in 74 runs at 37.

“If I keep hitting into double plays, they’re going to keep walking Barry, that’s just the way it is,” Santiago said. “There’s a lot of pressure involved. It’s not always easy.”

Then again, the battle-scarred catcher is familiar with tough assignments. He has resurrected his career after a near fatal auto accident and he has amended a lifestyle that threatened to end his career with the same impact of that accident.

In the interview room after the third one-run decision of the Series, a reporter asked Baker if he had considered shaking up his lineup, putting Aurilia or someone else behind Bonds.

“Whoever you put back there it’s going to be the same situation,” the manager said. “Benito’s come through big-time in the second half. That’s why he remains there.

“I mean, if you [reporters] can come up with any better lineup, please tell me.”

Since Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda are called on only to deliver a ceremonial first pitch now and then, as they did before Game 3 at Pacific Bell Park, this reporter sees Baker as not having many lineup options except to keep Kent batting third and Santiago fifth.

Kent is three for 16 in the Series with two RBI. He struck out with two runners on base in the first inning, lined out with two on in the third, hit a fly ball to right with two on in the fifth that scored Kenny Lofton from third with the second San Francisco run, then struck out again against Francisco Rodriguez in the seventh.

“You can’t worry about missed opportunities,” he said later. “It’s frustrating in this situation because your tendency is to want to hit every pitch out of the park, but you have to let the frustration and the missed opportunities go. I mean, the game is bigger than me, the team is bigger than me. It’s all about 25 guys, it’s all about the pitchers doing their job, giving the offense time to keep creating the opportunities. Benito had some, failed, then came through. I had some, failed, then came through.”

Was it imperative that they did, that the Giants did?

Kent refused to call it a must win, saying that none of his teammates had lost confidence, but “I think we knew that we had to save some face after [the 10-4 loss in Game 3], and I think we did that. Everybody wants predictions on how this is going to play out, but what you have is two very good teams going hard at each other and it’s a seven-game series. No one was thinking it would be over in four or five.”

Predictions?

Despite Baker’s offer to come up with a better lineup, it can be said with certainty that Kent and Santiago will be sandwiching Bonds again tonight.