GIANTS EXTEND 'W' STREAK TO 12 WITH WILD 17-INNING VICTORY
Cruz's Slam Ties Game in 16th; Walk-Off Single in
17th
SAN FRANCISCO, July 23 (AP) - The San Francisco Giants extended their winning
streak to 12 games with an improbable 8-7 victory in 17 innings over the Arizona
Diamondbacks at Pacific Bell Park. After falling behind by four runs in
the 16th, Jose Cruz, Jr. belted a game-tying grand slam and, in the 17th inning,
Cruz won the game for the Giants with a bases loaded walk-off single. The
17-inning affair is the second longest in the major leagues thus far this
season; the Anaheim Angels and Tampa Bay Devil Rays played 19 innings on May 29
at Tropicana Field.
Early on, the contest was a pitcher's duel between Miguel Batista of the
Diamondbacks and Jim Brower of the Giants. San Francisco pushed a run
across against Batista in the bottom of the fourth. Barry Bonds reached on
a lead-off walk--one of five free passes drawn by the Giants left fielder in the
game--and after Batista retired Cruz and Rich Aurilia without incident, Yorvit
Torrealba doubled to the gap in left-center field. Bonds beat the relay
throw from shortstop Alex Cintron and the Giants grabbed a 1-0 lead.
Brower, meanwhile, held the Diamondbacks scoreless before being lifted in the
seventh; Batista was removed in the bottom of the same inning. But the 1-0
score held into the ninth inning. With closer Todd Worrell on the mound
for the Giants, Luis Gonzalez lined a one-out single to center field and Shea
Hillenbrand followed with a base hit of his own to right, putting runners on
first and second. Steve Finley's infield roller was handled by Worrell for
the second out, with the runners advancing to second and third. That
brought pinch hitter Carlos Baerga to the plate and, on a 2-1 offering, he
grounded a single through the middle, scoring Gonzalez and Hillenbrand for a 2-1
Arizona lead. Danny Bautista grounded out to end the inning.
The Diamondbacks brought their closer, Matt Mantei, on to finish out the game,
and he retired pinch hitter Andres Galarraga to open the inning. But
back-to-back singles off the bats of J.T. Snow and Marquis Grissom brought Bonds
to the plate with runners on first and second. Mantei was clearly working
around Bonds, who fouled off several pitches that were out of the strike zone,
eventually working the count full. But on a low outside breaking ball,
Bonds hooked a single into right field, scoring Snow with the tying run and
advancing Grissom to third with the potential winning run. The
Diamondbacks brought the infield in and Cruz lined sharply to second baseman
Matt Kata for the second out and retired Aurilia on a fly to right to send the
game to extra innings.
In the top of the 11th, Luis Gonzalez drilled a lead-off home run off Matt
Herges to put Arizona back on top but with two outs in the bottom of the inning,
Marquis Grissom returned the favor against Mike Myers. Grissom's 20th home
run of the season tied the game again, this time 3-3.
The teams traded scoreless frames until the 16th when the Diamondbacks appeared
to break the game open once and for all. Both clubs were essentially out
of fresh pitchers by this time and Scott Eyre, normally used as a situational
lefty by the Giants, was beginning his third inning of work. Prior to this
outing, Eyre had never worked as many as two innings in any of his 45
appearances. After retiring Hillenbrand to open the inning, Eyre walked
Steve Finley. Oscar Villareal, the Diamondbacks pitcher, tried to
sacrifice, but bunted so effectively that he beat the play at first base for a
single, leaving runners at first and second. Bautista forced Villareal at
second, putting runners on the corners with two outs and it appeared that Eyre
might escape damage. But Chad Moeller singled, scoring Finley with the
lead run, and advancing Bautista to second. Kata grounded a single to
center and Grissom's throw to the plate was late, allowing Bautista to score and
Moeller and Kata to move to third and second respectively. Craig Counsell
reached on an infield single, allowing Moeller to score and Kata to advance to
third and an Eyre wild pitch allowed Kata to score the fourth run of the
inning. When the dust had settled, the Diamondbacks held a 7-3 lead with
only three outs to go to sew up the win.
But the Giants didn't quit. And, like Eyre, Arizona's Villareal was
entering his third inning of work. Snow led off the inning by doubling off
the right field wall, Villareal then hit Grissom with a pitch and Bonds
walked to fill the bases. That set up Cruz who belted a 2-1 offering into
the seats above the right field wall to tie the game and send what was left of
what had been a sell-out crowd into a state of delirium. Stephen Randolph
replaced Villareal despite having worked in the previous three games and retired
the Giants in order to send the game to the 17th inning.
Chad Zerbe, scheduled to start the next day's game, came on for the Giants and,
despite allowing a pair of hits, kept Arizona off the board in the top of the
inning.
Randolph came back out for the Diamondbacks in the bottom of the inning and
surrendered a one-out single to Zerbe, who was apparently on for the
duration. Snow flied to center for the second out and an 18th inning
seemed in the offing. But Randolph, clearly laboring, walked Grissom and
Bonds on a grand total of nine pitches to load the bases. Randolphh fell
behind Cruz 3-1 and then all but lobbed a pitch over the plate, knowing that
another ball guaranteed the game's end. Cruz calmly laced a single into
right field, scoring Zerbe with the winning run.
7/23/2003, Ari03-SF03, Pacific Bell Park 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 2003 Diamondbacks 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2003 Giants 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 13 14 15 16 17 R H E LOB DP 2003 Diamondbacks 0 0 0 4 0 7 16 0 13 1 2003 Giants 0 0 0 4 1 8 15 1 19 4 Diamondbacks AB R H BI AVG Giants AB R H BI AVG Counsell 3b 7 0 2 1 .230 Durham 2b 4 0 1 0 .294 Cintron ss 6 0 1 0 .244 Nathan p 0 0 0 0 .000 Gonzalez,L lf 7 2 2 1 .290 Worrell p 0 0 0 0 .000 Hillenbrand 1b 7 1 2 0 .301 Galarraga ph 1 0 0 0 .296 Finley cf 6 1 1 0 .252 Herges p 0 0 0 0 .000 Spivey 2b 3 0 0 0 .309 Castillo ph 1 0 0 0 .167 Oropesa p 0 0 0 0 1.000 Rodriguez,Fe p 0 0 0 0 .000 Valverde p 0 0 0 0 .000 Torcato ph 1 0 0 0 .667 Baerga ph 1 0 1 2 .344 Eyre p 1 0 0 0 .000 Mantei p 0 0 0 0 .000 Zerbe p 1 1 1 0 .333 McCracken ph 1 0 0 0 .189 Snow 1b 7 2 3 0 .282 Myers,M p 0 0 0 0 .000 Grissom cf 6 2 2 1 .304 Dessens p 0 0 0 0 .227 Bonds lf 4 2 1 1 .359 Grace ph 1 0 0 0 .200 Cruz,Jo rf 9 1 3 5 .269 Villarreal p 1 0 1 0 .500 Aurilia ss 8 0 2 0 .307 Randolph p 1 0 0 0 .000 Torrealba c 7 0 2 1 .313 Bautista rf 8 1 3 0 .314 Feliz 3b 5 0 0 0 .260 Barajas c 4 0 1 0 .230 Brower p 2 0 0 0 .143 Moeller pr 4 1 1 1 .277 Christiansen p 0 0 0 0 .000 Batista,M p 2 0 0 0 .094 Perez,N ph 6 0 0 0 .185 Kata 2b 3 1 1 1 .224 63 8 15 8 62 7 16 6 Diamondbacks INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Batista,M 6.2 4 1 1 5 6 111 67 3.12 Oropesa 0.1 1 0 0 1 0 18 9 4.08 Valverde 1.0 1 0 0 1 2 22 12 3.38 Mantei BS 4 2.0 3 1 1 0 1 38 24 1.54 Myers,M BS 2 1.0 1 1 1 0 0 14 8 7.71 Dessens 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 12 8 3.58 Villarreal 3.0 3 4 4 3 0 54 27 3.41 Randolph L 0-1 1.2 2 1 1 2 1 37 17 4.10 16.2 15 8 8 12 10 306 172 Giants INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Brower 6.1 2 0 0 2 6 87 61 2.47 Christiansen H 4 0.2 0 0 0 0 1 6 4 2.02 Nathan H 18 1.0 0 0 0 1 1 19 8 2.76 Worrell BS 6 1.0 3 2 2 0 0 13 11 2.87 Herges 2.0 3 1 1 0 1 32 22 4.70 Rodriguez,Fe 2.0 2 0 0 1 0 25 16 3.07 Eyre 3.0 5 4 4 2 0 47 28 5.10 Zerbe W 2-0 1.0 1 0 0 1 0 22 13 4.17 17.0 16 7 7 7 9 251 163 Ari: Kata inserted at 2b in the 7th Baerga batted for Valverde in the 9th Moeller ran for Barajas in the 10th Moeller moved to c in the 10th McCracken batted for Mantei in the 11th Grace batted for Dessens in the 13th SF : Perez,N batted for Christiansen in the 7th Perez,N moved to 2b in the 8th Galarraga batted for Worrell in the 9th Castillo batted for Herges in the 11th Torcato batted for Rodriguez,Fe in the 13th E-Feliz. 2B-Counsell(6), Snow(17), Aurilia(28), Torrealba(11). HR-Gonzalez,L(17), Grissom(20), Cruz,Jo(11). RBI-Counsell(17), Gonzalez,L(56), Kata(11), Baerga 2(20), Moeller(27), Grissom(66), Bonds(56), Cruz,Jo 5(54), Torrealba(17). SB-Finley(10). K-Counsell, Cintron, Hillenbrand, Finley, Spivey, Bautista 2, Barajas, Batista,M, Durham 2, Cruz,Jo 2, Aurilia, Torrealba, Feliz 2, Brower 2. BB-Counsell, Cintron, Gonzalez,L, Hillenbrand, Finley 2, Kata, Snow 2, Grissom 2, Bonds 5, Feliz 3. SH-Cintron, Kata, Torrealba. HBP-Grissom. HB-Villarreal. WP-Villarreal, Eyre. GWRBI: Cruz,Jo Temperature: 68, Sky: clear, Wind: out to right at 7 MPH. Attendance: 41,575 Game Time: 5:32