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Giants turn to power game

San Francisco gets 16 hits, 3 HRs to pull away, take command.

By MARC TOPKIN, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times
published October 25, 2002

SAN FRANCISCO -- Sometimes, it's just a matter of perspective. In one way, you could say the story Thursday was that Anaheim's pitching was miserable. In another way, you say it was that San Francisco's offense was magnificent.

Either way, know that the Giants like the view.

With a 16-4 victory in Game 5 on Thursday at Pac Bell Park, the Giants moved to within one win of their first World Series championship since moving to San Francisco, and they have two chances to get it, starting Saturday night in Anaheim.

"It feels better than being down two games to three going into their house," Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "It feels pretty good. But the last game is always going to be the toughest."

The Angels put themselves in this position with an uncharacteristic performance -- their usually effective pitchers allowed 16 runs on 16 hits, and their usually efficient hitters managed to get only four runs out of 10 hits.

"Obviously, it was a flat-out whupping," Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia said. "You can't put it into any other words. Like Dusty said the other night, hopefully they swung themselves out."

They were in trouble from the start when starter Jarrod Washburn walked a Series record-tying four during a three-run San Francisco first inning. By the end of the long night -- the game ended well after midnight Eastern time -- they had allowed the most runs in a Series game in more than 60 years, and the second-most in history. (The Yankees scored 18, against the Giants, in Game 2 of the 1936 Series.)

They also gave up three more home runs -- including two by Jeff Kent -- to make it a record-tying 12 in the Series for the Giants.

"Those guys are swinging the bats," Scioscia said. "It's been a little point of concern in all the playoffs that our starters are not going deep enough into games. It's something we'll need, two solid starts, for us to get where we want to be."

The Giants got where they are for a lot of reasons, including the presence of Baker's 3-year-old son, Darren. The Giants are 8-0 when Darren is a batboy, but it was his over-eager dash to home plate that led to a near-collision with J.T. Snow, who was racing home with a seventh-inning run, that was of primary concern.

Especially from Dusty's mom, who was the first person to call the clubhouse after the game, reminding him that the 3-year-old shouldn't be out on the field.

"Right now, he's our good luck charm. We can't have him going down," Snow said. "I have a 41/2-year-old son at home, so I kind of knew what to expect. Luckily I was able to grab him by the collar."

Washburn had trouble throwing strikes, and the Giants didn't have much problem hitting the pitches he got over the plate, taking an early 6-0 lead.

Kenny Lofton opened the first with a singles and Kent drew a one-out walk. The Angels -- who'd walked Barry Bonds nine times in the first four games -- pitched to him this time. Bad move. Bonds -- whose first three Series hits were home runs -- doubled hard to rightfield, scoring Lofton.

After Benito Santiago's sacrifice fly made it 2-0, the Angels intentionally walked Reggie Sanders, another bad move because Washburn walked J.T. Snow to load the bases and then walked David Bell to force in a run.

The Giants were at it again in the second, with Lofton slapping a leadoff single and Kent doubling off the right-centerfield wall. With men on second and third with no outs, the Angels decided this time to walk Bonds -- his sixth intentional pass of the Series.

That didn't work either. Santiago smacked a two-run single up the middle to make it 5-0, and Sanders brought in another run with a sacrifice fly.

Down 6-0 with their best starting pitcher knocked out after four miserable innings, the Angels did what usually do -- battle back.

They scored three in the fifth, chasing Giants starter Jason Schmidt, and another in the sixth, to draw within 6-4.

"We battled back," Scioscia said. "When you look at the final score it was a whupping. But the opportunity in the middle of the game to get back in it was there."

Then it was the Giants' turn to rally, and they came up big, scoring six times over the next two innings to break the game open.

Kent hit a two-run homer in the sixth, following a two-out single by Rich Aurilia. A J.T. Snow single, a hit batter and a bunt put two on with one out in the seventh, and the Giants capitalized again. Lofton's triple to right scored two runs, and Kent delivered another two-run homer.

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