作者LAscum (洛城痞子)
看板SFGiants
標題[原文] Bonds' streak ends in SF loss
時間Thu Apr 22 15:25:57 2004
Bonds' streak ends in SF loss
By Rich Draper / MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants felt all along that the National League West could
be a tougher division this season, but they never envisioned themselves being
near the bottom of the standings early on.
That's the case, however, as San Francisco suffered its sixth loss in the last
seven games with an 11-0 blanking by the second-place San Diego Padres (8-7) at
SBC Park on Wednesday night and remained in fourth place with a 6-9 record.
Slugger Barry Bonds' glorious streak -- eight homers in seven straight games --
ended quietly, as he struck out looking, walked twice and never even managed a
swing.
In two games, Bonds has seen 29 pitches and only swung at one, cracking a
two-run homer against the Padres on Tuesday night.
If the defending division champion Giants feel a bit shocked at these early
developments, you can't blame them.
So uncharacteristic. So unfathomable. So unreal.
Making matters worse, ace hurler Jason Schmidt -- last season's National League
Cy Young Award runner-up -- was at a loss why he gave up six earned runs on
seven hits and three wild pitches over only four innings in his second game of
the season.
That's not him, just like it's not the Giants, scuffling for runs and getting
shut out twice so far.
"Physically I feel really good, but I don't know what's going on," said Schmidt
, now 0-2. "I don't feel like myself and I'm having a hard time throwing the
ball down in the zone. You'd think things would just click. I don't think I'm
that far off, I just have to figure out what it is.
"I wanted to come out and give the team a lift tonight and tried to press a
little hard to do it. Everything feels flat. No excuses, you still have to make
your pitches."
Schmidt, who suffered shoulder soreness in the spring to delay his first outing
until last Friday, used the dreaded "S" word -- for slump -- in analyzing
what's happening with the Giants as a whole.
Getting only four hits against the Padres wasn't pretty, while watching San
Diego collect 17 hits Wednesday and 15 the night before -- whew.
"I'm flat, the whole team is flat," said the 31-year-old veteran. "Teams do go
through slumps. We're stale right now and need a sparkplug. I take pride in
trying to do that, but hopefully Woody [Kirk Rueter] can be the sparkplug
tomorrow and get things going."
Manager Felipe Alou said Bonds was unhappy that his chances of getting a real
at-bat and tying the Major League record of hitting homers in eight consecutive
games were slim, with the Padres intent on walking him semi-purposefully.
So Alou took Bonds out after the seventh.
"He was kind of disappointed," said Alou. "The chances of him being walked
again -- we don't know the percentage. I wanted to take him out an inning
before, but he played defense then the score got out of hand."
Winning pitcher Jake Peavy (1-1), who shut out San Francisco over seven innings
on April 11 at PETCO Park, again kept the Giants off stride with a mix of
sliders and changeups, holding them scoreless through six innings.
Mark Loretta had a three-run homer in the fourth, while Brian Giles homered
in the seventh and drove in two more runs in the eighth with a single.
Left-handed reliever Noah Lowry, called up from Triple-A Fresno before the game
for emergency purposes and to protect a beleaguered bullpen, gave up nine hits
and four runs over three innings.
Lowry was sent down to Fresno after the game, but he did save the pen. Reliever
Scott Eyre, out since the start of the season with back pain, was recalled
from his rehab assignment at Fresno.
The trick now is to lift the Giants out of their doldrums, and soon.
"I don't get frustrated," said Alou. "We want to win games. You've got to be
realistic as to why we're not winning. We still don't have it together yet.
"I look at the reasons why. We're not hitting a lot, we're not getting a lot of
innings from the starting pitchers and we have a bullpen that is tired. We've
been behind 6-0 and 7-0 the last two games and there's not much you can do to
get out of an early hole."
Rich Draper is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the
approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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