Vizquel’s Acrobatics Have the Giants Jumping

Barry Bonds got a standing ovation. Then the game started, with San Francisco fans eating their hot dogs and chanting “Beat L.A.!” with relish.

The crowd would rise again and again, celebrating highlights of the Giants’ 4-2 victory over the Dodgers in Tuesday’s opener. But no ovation resonated more than the one for Omar Vizquel, who turned a double play that wowed everyone in the ballpark, except himself.

The last meaningful play by a Giant shortstop last season was this: Cody Ransom making a key error in the ninth inning last October at Dodger Stadium, preceding the Steve Finley grand slam that sent the Dodgers into the playoffs and the Giants home for the winter.

The first meaningful play by a Giant shortstop this season was this: Vizquel in the middle of a double play that killed a Dodger rally in the ninth inning, preceding the final out.

“Omar,” San Francisco pitcher Jason Schmidt said, “is one of the greatest shortstops ever.”

With Bonds out indefinitely after knee surgery, the Giants will have to find other leaders.

Vizquel doubled, singled and walked, but the Giants did not hire him for his bat. He turns 38 in three weeks, but the Giants nonetheless guaranteed him three years -- and $12.25 million -- when they signed him as a free agent.

The deal came up sweet on Tuesday. The Giants led, 4-2, after eight innings, but Jeff Kent singled to start the ninth, bringing Milton Bradley to the plate as the tying run.

Bradley chopped a ground ball toward second baseman Ray Durham, an apparent force play at best. But Vizquel, a nine-time Gold Glove winner, showed his artistry. With Kent barreling toward him to try to break up the double play, Vizquel handled Durham’s feed, hurdled over Kent and fired to first baseman J.T. Snow to double up Bradley.

“I haven’t ever seen, in the eight years I’ve been here, a guy jumping over a runner, doing the splits and throwing a strike to first base,” Snow said.

Said Schmidt: “That’s unreal. That guy is as acrobatic as anybody.”

Vizquel said he wasn’t sure whether the ovation was for him -- it was, teammates said -- or for the fact the play left the Giants one out from victory. He said he turned similar double plays “quite a few times” and did not check out the replays.

“It’s nothing I’ll go back to the highlights and see,” Vizquel said.

Dodger fans will see him next week, when the teams meet at Dodger Stadium. Vizquel, in his first season in the National League, said he had heard about the intensity of the Dodger-Giant rivalry but did not sense it Tuesday, aside from the “Beat L.A.!” chants.

“I was expecting, maybe, more violence, I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe it will be like that in L.A.”