bonds does it again

[smazza]

twice

[smazza]

You don't have to be a brain surgeon to understand there are two Giants who absolutely can't get hurt if they are to reach the playoffs. Now, one of them is hurt.

It's not Barry Bonds, who hit a pair of home runs in the Giants' wild, 5-4 victory over the Montreal Expos on Tuesday night, but starter Jason Schmidt, who left after eight innings with an injury to his right groin. The medical staff offered no prognosis, saying the front-runner for the National League Cy Young Award will be evaluated today.

"You're always concerned," Schmidt said. "I'll just take it day to day. Every (groin injury) is different. I'll wake up tomorrow and see what happens. Then I'll wake up the day after that and see what happens."

Closer Dustin Hermanson, who blew his first save as the Expos scored twice in the ninth to tie the game 4-4, knows all too well about hurt groins.

"That's the only injury I ever had in my whole career. I had it in Boston, and it's the worst injury a pitcher can have," Hermanson said. "Anytime you've got a guy who throws seven, eight, nine innings every time out, you hope he comes back tomorrow feeling pretty good. You hope it's slight."

The Giants won their sixth game in a row on J.T. Snow's one-out, RBI single in the ninth, his third hit. Scoring from second was pinch-runner Ricky Ledee, as the throw from Juan Rivera, playing his first inning in right field, not only sailed over catcher Brian Schneider and home plate, but over the screen and into the stands.

Snow also turned in more spectacular defense. Even the play on which Schmidt got hurt was sparkling. With the Giants leading 4-2 in the eighth, runners on the corners and one out, Jose Vidro hit a sharp bouncer that Snow stabbed. He threw to short from one knee to start a 3-6-3 double play. Schmidt felt a pain in his groin as he moved off the mound toward first base.

"I felt a little cramp there," Schmidt said. "When I went out for my warm-up pitches the next inning, it felt a little sharper."

He called for head trainer Stan Conte, who accompanied Schmidt off the mound. Scott Eyre relieved and walked the pinch-hitter Rivera. Nick Johnson bounced into a force, but Hermanson's first hitter, Alex Gonzalez, hit a double to left that put the tying runs in scoring position. One scored on Schneider's groundout to first, the second on pinch-hitter Tony Batista's infield single.

Manager Felipe Alou did not want to use Hermanson for a fourth straight day. Now, with the Giants set to play a doubleheader against the Expos today, he's unsure if Hermanson will be available.

The winning rally began when new pitcher Luis Ayala walked Yorvit Torrealba. Pinch-bunter Kirk Rueter laid down a good one that was not fielded in time. Rueter had a single and was replaced at first by Ledee, lest another pitcher go down with a leg injury.

Ray Durham bunted into a force at third before Snow grounded the winning single to right.

"That was an ugly game," Alou said, "but you've got to win the ugly games, too, because it's the ugly losses that bury a team."

Almost buried beneath the concern over Schmidt were the two homers by Bonds, the first a solo, the other with a runner aboard. They were his 32nd and 33rd home runs of the season, Nos. 690 and 691 for his career. Earlier this season it seemed that 700 might be out of reach in 2004. Now, Bonds is nine away from that big, round number and just 23 short of that big, round legend known as the Bambino.

Bonds hit both homers off Expos starter Sun-woo Kim, the 408th pitcher to allow a Bonds homer but only the second from South Korea. The other, Chan Ho Park, gave up a biggie: No. 71 in 2001, which broke the single-season record. The first pitch Bonds ever saw from Kim landed in the center-field seats.

"It was a strike," Alou said. "He's got to take advantage of anybody who throws a strike, whether it's a Japanese, a Korean or an Iraqi."

[Velcro]

ahh, ok.  i thought this was a thread about injections.

[___ Eats It]

Or BALCO denials.   ;D

[KnightsRule]

I thought it might be about him shwoing up his pitcher by sitting with his hands on his knees as a flyball goes over his head that he thinks is a HR but then lands on the warning track and he is standing like a moron. My bad :-/

[smazza]

Career Leaders

HRs

Hank Aaron

755

Babe Ruth

714

Barry Bonds

692