Walks Aren’t Popular

The fans did not always support the home team Friday night. The Dodgers intentionally walked Barry Bonds four times during a 12-inning, 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants, with each walk eliciting some boos from the sellout crowd.

“As a fan, you want to say to your grandkid, I saw the best baseball player -- maybe ever -- and I saw him hit an 800-foot home run,” Dodger catcher Paul Lo Duca said. “But we come to the ballpark to win. If that’s what it takes for us to win, we’ll do it.”

The four intentional walks were one shy of the major league record, set by Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs in a 16-inning game in 1990. The at-bats following the intentional walks to Bonds went like this: RBI single, pop fly, strikeout, strikeout.

“If those other guys got hits, then you can boo,” Lo Duca said. “But every time we walked him, it paid off.”

Bonds was intentionally walked in the first inning Saturday, when the Giants scored three times.

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Although Jose Lima moved from the bullpen into the starting rotation, Wilson Alvarez would love to follow and Edwin Jackson would like to return from triple-A Las Vegas to reclaim the starting spot he lost in spring training, Manager Jim Tracy said he would not label former starter Darren Dreifort strictly a reliever.

“I won’t say that,” Tracy said. “It’s too long a season to say that’s all he is.”

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Today’s starter, Kazuhisa Ishii, is 2-1 despite giving up 17 hits and 10 walks in 16 2/3 innings. In his first two seasons, Ishii went 14-10 and 9-7 despite walking more than 100 each season.

“He’s got a style about him that makes you wonder, but he gets it done,” pitching coach Jim Colborn said. “He has a knack for winning, so it’s easy to have faith in him.”

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The Dodgers, in need of a seventh reliever to bolster a weary bullpen, activated Brian Falkenborg and optioned outfielder Chin-Feng Chin to Las Vegas. Falkenborg struck out 10 in 8 1/3 innings at Las Vegas.