MLB: Giants beat the Old Master and Dodgers
By Andrew Baggarly
San Jose Mercury News
LOS ANGELES — Call them anything you want. Big Money and Little Money. Bengie and the Bear. El Caballo and Zorro.
Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval earned the right to be called something new Friday night: Maddux killers.
They accomplished something no Giants hitters had done in a half-decade of futility against Greg Maddux. They reacted to his funhouse-mirror fastballs and shattered them, combining to drive in six runs in a 7-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Sandoval doubled twice and Molina brought him home each time. The veteran catcher grounded a two-run single in the first and launched a two-run home run in the fifth.
Barry Zito out-painted the Old Master, taking a shutout into the eighth inning before Pablo Ozuna hit a solo home run. Zito (10-16) reached double-digits in victories for the seventh consecutive season, an achievement that seemed a flight of fancy when he began the season 0-8 in his first nine starts.
Beating Maddux was an equally fantastic notion. The future Hall of Fame pitcher hadn't lost to the Giants since May 9, 2003, when he wore an Atlanta Braves uniform.
He was 7-0 in his previous 13 outings against them, including a dominant 10-start run that began when he joined the Dodgers in the middle of the '06 season. He was 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA against the Giants over that span, holding them to a .186 average and walking just three in 661/3 innings.
Most of those starts involved an embarrassingly low pitch count and plenty of shaking heads as Giants hitters played into his hands.
But Maddux had never laid eyes on Sandoval, the Giants' switch-hitting sensation with a strike zone as big as the Western sky. The four-time Cy Young Award winner learned soon enough that he couldn't set up the free-swinging rookie.
Sandoval fouled off the first pitch, and with catcher Danny Ardoin practically set up in the opposite batter's box, the rookie lunged at an outside pitch and grounded it down the third-base line.
After Molina bounced his single up the middle, Sandoval tried to score from second base and the throw beat him to the plate. But he did a pogo-stick hop around Ardoin's tag, then reached back to touch the plate.
Dave Roberts also contributed a pair of singles against Maddux, improving to 11 for 33 in his career against the 42-year-old pitcher.
It was the worst beating the Giants have ever given Maddux in the regular season, but they've rolled him worse on one other occasion. In Game 1 of the 1989 National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs, Will Clark hit a grand slam off Maddux as the Giants scored eight runs against him.
It seems Maddux has spent the past 19 seasons getting even. With 30 victories, Maddux remained tied with Phil Niekro and Phil Sutton for the most wins against the Giants in the San Francisco era.
Molina powered himself back in the hunt for a 100-RBI season, which would be the first by a Giant since Barry Bonds in 2004. He stands at 92 with nine games remaining, and Manager Bruce Bochy might forgo resting his frontline catcher to give him every opportunity to get there.
Sandoval's second double might have been a gift. Left fielder Manny Ramirez drifted back on the ball instead of putting his head down and sprinting after it. The drive soared over his head to score two runs.
Zito recovered from a poor start at San Diego, working quickly to hold down a Dodgers lineup that struggled to get good swings. Ramirez had two of their six hits, driving a double and reaching on an infield single.
Although Zito went 72/3 innings, he's still looking for his first complete game since Aug. 7, 2003, while pitching for the A's.
Bochy might have let Zito shoot for the complete game, but he had thrown 119 pitches and some members of the Giants' bullpen had been underutilized in recent days.
Tyler Walker put down a rally in the ninth as the Dodgers remained 31/2 games in front of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the N.L. West. The Dodgers' magic number is six, and there's a good chance they'll clinch before arriving for a season-ending series at AT&T Park next weekend.