Andrew Baggarly
Mercury News
The Giants watched for years as opposing managers gave the four-finger salute to Barry Bonds.
Wednesday night, they wiggled back. Manager Bruce Bochy intentionally walked Albert Pujols, the force of nature in the St. Louis Cardinals' lineup, in each of his first two plate appearances.
But when the Cardinals got the winning hit in the 10th inning of their 2-1 victory, their supernova-hot slugger was standing in the on-deck circle.
Colby Rasmus sent the red-clad faithful home happy, going deep on a 3-2 fastball from Bob Howry as the Cardinals snapped the Giants' three-game winning streak.
Pujols' looming presence probably influenced Howry's decision to throw a straight fastball instead of the sinker that catcher Bengie Molina wanted.
But it shouldn't have come to that pitch. Howry all but retired Rasmus twice earlier in the nine-pitch at-bat.
Third baseman Pablo Sandoval dropped a foul popup for an error that gave Rasmus another life. And Howry wanted a close 2-2 pitch more than another gulp of oxygen. He didn't get the call from plate umpire Bob Davidson, and Rasmus stroked the next fastball into the right-field seats.
Howry dressed in record time, briskly filed past reporters and said, "Go ask the "... umpire."
Molina asked Davidson for the location on the 2-2 pitch and was told it missed away.
What lost the game, then? "Many things," Molina said. "We had many opportunities to score. The other day, we got soft hits. Today we hit hard outs." The Giants scored the tying run in the eighth when Molina hit a sacrifice fly off Adam Wainwright, who formed an entertaining pitchers' duel with Matt Cain. But it was the only run the Giants managed in the inning after loading the bases with none out — a rally that began with Fred Lewis' pinch double. Wainwright struck out Nate Schierholtz to strand two runners, then returned in the ninth to strike out three more. His career-high 12 strikeouts were the most by a Cardinals pitcher since 2006. Sandoval had a tough night. In addition to his crucial drop, he made the first out in the eighth when he struck out on a nasty curveball. "There's no excuses," he said. "I have to catch that ball, 100 percent. You have to think about it a little bit because it's my fault we lost the game. But tomorrow's another day. Play hard." Molina took aside Sandoval and told him "no moleste" — don't be troubled. "Oh, c'mon," said Molina, asked about Sandoval's mental state. "He's helped us more with the bat and the glove than anyone else here. He's a player, man. He'll be fine." The same is true for Pujols, who singled twice and reached base in all four plate appearances. Cain was ordered to walk him with one out in the first inning after Skip Schumaker led off with an infield single and advanced on shortstop Edgar Renteria's throwing error. The error broke the Giants' 10-game streak without one. They haven't played 11 consecutive errorless games since 2000. Cain gave up a single to Ryan Ludwick that scored Schumaker, but that was all he allowed in seven innings. He lowered his ERA to 2.48, trailing just Arizona's Dan Haren (2.19) and teammate Tim Lincecum (2.37) in the National League. It was obvious Cain would put Pujols on base in the third inning, when the slugger came to bat with a runner at second with two out. The crowd registered loud disapproval. "He's the best hitter in the game and he's unconscious right now," Bochy said. "It was a no-brainer." Here's another no-brainer: Rubber chickens at the Busch Stadium concession stands. From: MLB.com
 San Francisco (42-35) Lost 1 | St. Louis 2, San Francisco 1 |  St. Louis (42-38) Won 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Standings thru 7/1/09 | Recap: SF | STL | Wrap | Gameday |
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