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Wednesday, October 23 When Bonds homers, Giants usually lose By David Schoenfield ESPN.com SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds continues to launch moon shots into the outfield bleachers and a cheap shot or two at the media. After Game 3, Bonds, unhappy with the crowd of media around his locker and the string of questions, said, "I just want to play, and why don't you guys go do something else for a living?"
Bonds, of course, has been pounding home runs for a living -- a record seven so far in the postseason. He has hit his home runs in seven different games -- but the Giants are only 2-5 when he homers and 6-0 when he doesn't homer. A look at each of Bonds' postseason homers: 1. NLDS Game 2, 9th inning, solo shot, Giants trailed Braves 7-2 at the time, lost 7-3. 2. NLDS Game 3, 6th inning, solo, Giants down 6-1, lost 10-2. 3. NLDS Game 5, 4th inning, solo, Giants up 1-0, won 3-1. 4. NLCS Game 3, 5th inning, 3-run, Giants down 4-1, lost 5-4. 5. World Series Game 1, 2nd inning, solo, 0-0, Giants win 5-4. 6. World Series Game 2, 9th inning, solo, Giants down 11-9, lost 11-10. 7. World Series Game 3, 5th inning, 2-run, Giants down 8-2, lost 10-4. Overall, in the eight postseason games the Giants have won, Bonds is 6-for-22 (.273) with two home runs, six RBI and 11 walks. In the five games the Giants have lost, Bonds is 5-for-13 with five home runs, eight RBI and nine walks. What does it mean? Well, three of Bonds' homers have come in obvious blowout situations, but that's to be expected; that's the one time you can definitely go after him. More importantly, it means the Giants need the other hitters to produce to win; in the games they've won, the biggest hits have been provided by Benito Santiago and J.T. Snow, not Bonds. It also means you can beat the Giants even if you do give up a home run to Bonds. Baseball is, after all, a team sport.
Angels on a hit parade
The Angels also became just the fourth team to score double digits in consecutive games, joining the '60 Yankees (16 and 10 runs in Games 2 and 3), the '93 Blue Jays (10 and 15 runs in Games 3 and 4 against the Phillies), and the '97 Indians (11 and 10 runs in Games 3 and 4 against the Marlins). On the bright side for the Giants, however, is the fact that the '60 Yankees and '97 Indians lost their Series.
Record-high offense; record-low ratings Anaheim's 10-4 victory on Tuesday night got a 10.8 national rating, the lowest ever for the third game of the Series, Nielsen Media Research said Wednesday. The rating fell 30 percent from last year's 15.4 between Arizona and the New York Yankees, which went up against Michael Jordan's comeback game to the NBA. Last year's Series Game 3, won by the Yankees 2-1, also included President Bush throwing out the first pitch, which helped generate a large audience for the start of the game. The rating for this year's game peaked at 13.0 between 9:30-10 p.m. ET and fell after that as the Angels took a big lead. "In addition to the regional matchup dampening overall viewership, Game 3 in particular, was negatively influenced by the Angels taking an early 8-1 lead,'' Fox Sports president Ed Goren said. The last regional Series, the 2000 all-New York matchup between the Yankees and Mets, got a 12.4 rating for Game 3. Through three games, this year's World Series is averaging a 10.8 rating, down 22 percent from the 13.8 last year and 11 percent from the 12.1 in 2000.
A loss of Mo "I think it was good to get Mo out, just simply because I think he made it well-known to everybody that he didn't want to be there," he said. "I don't think we really wanted a guy on our team that didn't want to be on our team." Besides dumping Vaughn's monster salary and acquiring a reliable starter in Appier, the Angels' defense was much better than if Vaughn had been at first base. "(Scott Spiezio) has been unbelievable over there at first base. Obviously, it's a very big improvement defensively," Washburn said.
Notes
"He had a sinus infection," Dusty Baker said. "He's on some antibiotics, he was raring to go this morning. He's ready to come to the ballpark."
David Schoenfield is the baseball editor at ESPN.com. |
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