GAME 3
Angels 10
Giants 4
SAN FRANCISCO – Barry Bonds is the World Series stud but the Angels are two wins away from leaving with the best looking girl at the party.
On a night when Bonds again reminded everyone what type of power lurks in his thick body with a colossal home run, it was the Angels’ blistering bats that carried them to a 10-4 win in Game 3 at Pac Bell Park in front of 42,707 bummed out customers who witnessed the first World Series game at the 3-year-old stadium and the first in San Francisco since 1989.
The Angels lead the best-of-seven series 2-1 going into tonight’s Game 4. Rookie right-hander John Lackey faces Giants lefty Kirk Rueter.
In the previous 49 Series that were tied 1-1, the winner of Game 3 has won the Series 32 times.
Every Angel in the lineup except starting pitcher Ramon Ortiz had at least one hit, and pinch-hitter Benji Gil filled out the No. 9 hole with a single in the eighth. The Angels collected 16 hits for the second straight game and have 43 in three games.
MVP candidate Scott Spiezio went 2-for-5 and drove in three runs. He is batting .364 (4-for-11) with five RBIs in the series.
Ortiz posted the victory with a five-inning effort in which he gave up four runs and five hits. Livan Hernandez, who like his half-brother Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez has a big-game reputation, was shelled for six runs (five earned) and five hits in 32/3 innings.
The Giants hurt themselves with two errors.
Bonds gave the huge crowd hope that the Giants could crawl out of an 8-1 hole in the fifth when he crushed a two-run homer to center field that was measured at 437 feet. It was his third Series dinger and seventh of the postseason, the most hit by a player in one October.
Bonds, who was walked intentionally in the first inning with runners at first and third, fanned in the third and drew a four-pitch walk from Brendan Donnelly in the seventh. It was his 20th postseason walk, tying Gary Sheffield’s mark set in 1997.
Bonds’ homer cut the Angels’ lead to 8-4 and came two batters after Rich Aurilia homered to left with one out.
The Angels responded to their lead being sliced in half by scoring a run in the sixth on David Eckstein’s two-out single to center that scored Adam Kennedy from second to stretch the advantage to 9-4.
Dusty Baker lifted Hernandez with two outs in the fourth and the Angels leading 5-1. That bulge grew to 8-1 against former Yankee Jay Witasick, who is quickly moving toward capturing the “Worst World Series Pitcher Ever” title.
Witasick walked Troy Glaus, gave up an RBI single to Spiezio, took a Kennedy liner off his right elbow that scored a run, and gave up a run-scoring single to Bengie Molina that gave the visitors a seven-run advantage.
In three World Series appearances, Witasick has worked 12/3 innings, allowed 13 hits and 10 runs for an embarrassing 54.22 ERA. Pitching in Game 6 last year for the Yankees against the Diamondbacks, Witasick gave up 10 hits and eight runs in 11/3 innings.
A four-run third inning by the Angels erased a 1-0 Giants lead, fueled by third baseman David Bell’s error on Tim Salmon’s ground ball.
Hernandez created a problem by walking Eckstein to start the frame; that was followed by Darin Erstad ripping a double into the right-field corner. Salmon followed with a chopper that glanced off Bell’s glove as Eckstein scored. Glaus followed Garret Anderson’s fly ball to left with an RBI single to left, and Spiezio cleared the bases with a triple to right-center that rolled to the 421-foot sign. Molina was walked intentionally for the second straight inning and Ortiz grounded back to Hernandez.