Bautista's slam puts Pirates on sunny side
Share with others:
SAN FRANCISCO -- It was a dreary day by the Bay, the clouds snuffing any semblance of sky all morning and all afternoon.
Except for one golden minute that seemed surreal on more levels than one.
Seconds after Jose Bautista's eighth-inning grand slam lit the way for perhaps the Pirates' brightest outcome of the summer, a 7-5 upending of the San Francisco Giants yesterday at AT&T Park, there was the sun making a cameo appearance.
And then, before the next batter stepped up, it was gone.
"Yeah, I saw that," first baseman Sean Casey would say afterward with a smile. "It was like the heavens opened or something. Awesome. Just awesome."
Even that strong a sentiment -- or any degree of symbolism -- might have been insufficient to describe how the Pirates must have felt.
They finally won their first road series by taking three of four from the Giants.
They finally had a winning trip by going 4-3 in Denver and here, this despite a 4-22 road mark beforehand.
And, above all, they finally are developing tangible support for their long-standing assertions that, really, truly, they never were as awful as their 25-39 record still might indicate.
"We're starting to make a lot of people believe," reliever Salomon Torres said. "We knew we had the skills. We knew we could get it done. It's just that some unfortunate breaks were going to the other team."
He pointed to the manager's office.
"Jim Tracy was talking about all those one-run losses, and some people said, 'Well, we've been hearing about this the entire season.' But it's true. If you swing those our way, it's a different story. And those people who doubted us ? well, maybe they're not 100 percent committed yet, but they're on their way to the bandwagon."
It is premature, of course, for anything resembling exuberance. The Pirates remain last in the Central Division, 13 games back.
Still, there is no shortage of appreciation for the 11-6 surge that launched with the May 26-28 home series against the Houston Astros, the one highlighted by that 18-inning thriller.
"I told you back then: That game was one of those that can turn a season around," closer Mike Gonzalez said. "And that's how it still feels."
"It feels good," reliever John Grabow said. "It feels like things are going our way."
It surely did not appear that way late in this one.
Paul Maholm had held his own in a matchup against San Francisco ace Jason Schmidt, taking a 2-1 lead into the sixth. The Giants did score three in that inning, but two came after shortstop Freddy Sanchez's two-out throwing error.
Maholm would give up eight hits and four walks in exiting after that. But, in what has become common, he limited his damage to four runs, three earned, while fanning seven.
"A sinker-baller gets used to having people on base," Maholm said. "You've still got to stay aggressive, make them beat you."
The Pirates had chased Schmidt, who had won six consecutive decisions, after six. And they did so with five hits and, maybe more important, by drawing five walks to pump up his pitch count to 110.
"Jason didn't have pinpoint command," Tracy said. "But we never allowed him to expand his strike zone."
That would prove critical.
San Francisco padded its lead to 5-2 in the seventh inning on Moises Alou's leadoff home run against Matt Capps, but the Pirates roared back with a five-run, seven-hit eighth off the Giants' bullpen.
Freddy Sanchez, Jose Castillo and Ronny Paulino singled off Jeremy Accardo to load the bases right off the bat, and Accardo was lifted for Tim Worrell.
Jose Hernandez struck out, and Nate McLouth dug an 0-2 hole, darkening the outlook somewhat. But McLouth rebounded to chop a ball high over the mound for an infield single, and the deficit was 5-3, bases still loaded.
Bautista took two pitches, then tore a cut fastball from Worrell high into the bleachers in left-center field. It was his sixth home run, his second in as many days, and the first slam of his fledgling career.
Similar to the previous day, Bautista shrugged off simply doing the most with a mistake pitch.
"It kind of spun. Didn't do much," he said. "I was just trying to stay out of a double play, and I put a good swing on it."
It was clear from his flick of the bat in the box he knew it was gone.
"Yeah, I think so," he said, grinning.
Tracy knew, too.
"My goodness, did you hear the sound of that ball?" he asked.
Grabow inherited a mini-mess in the bottom half, with two men on and two outs, but a crisp changeup retired pinch-hitter Todd Greene, his lone batter, on a popup.
Gonzalez zipped through a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save in as many days, his 11th in as many chances.
And, in the end, it was San Francisco manager Felipe Alou sounding very much like Tracy and so many of the Pirates when explaining three close losses -- 3-2, 2-0 and this one -- in a row.
"The games were good games," Alou said. "We just wound up on the wrong end of it."
George Nikitin, Associated Press photosJose Bautista (19) is congratulated by teammates after h itting a grand slam in the eighth inning yesterday against the Giants.
Click photo for larger image.
Pirates Notebook: GM will eye trades if team fails to contend
Provided by Forecaster
Pirates vs. Giants box score Game play-by-play
The Giants' Moises Alou watches as Jose Bautista's grand slam flies into the stands in the eighth inning yesterday at AT&T Park in San Francisco. The Pirates beat the Giants, 7-5.Click photo for larger image.
Jose Bautista gets high-fives from teammates after the Pirates beat the Giants, 7-5, yesterday in San Francisco.Click photo for larger image.
First Published June 12, 2006 12:00 am
