Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Giants start playoffs with shutout of Marlins THE ASSOCIATED PIIESS SAN FRANCISCO - Jason Schmidt aced another test. Schmidt pitched the San Francisco Giants to their first playoff shutout in 16 years, throw ing a three-hitter for a 2-0 victory over the Florida Marlins in Game 1 Tuesday. Schmidt outdueled Josh Beckett while Barry Bonds, and the Giants took advantage of a costly error by Florida fill-in third baseman Miguel Cabrera to score the go-ahead run. “I felt like I learned a lot more in the last two games of the World Series than I did my whole ca reer,” Schmidt said. “I couldn’t wait to get back to the postseason.” Game 2 in the best-of-five NL se ries is Wednesday. Bonds barely had two feet in the batter’s box when catcher Ivan Rodriguez’s glove shot out to sig nal an intentional walk, showing just how serious the Marlins were about not getting beat by base ball’s best slugger. Instead, the Marlins beat them selves with one bad throw. Bonds wound up 0-for-l with three walks. Chad Fox intention ally walked Bonds with nobody on base in the eighth, and he came around to score on Edgardo Alfonzo’s double. Bonds proved last postseason that he could carry his team—the five-time MVP hit .356 with eight homers, 16 RBI and 27 walks as the Giants reached the World Series for the first time since 1989 — but the Marlins don’t plan to let that happen if they can help it. When he was intentionally walked in the first, the crowd of 43,704 began booing lustily. On a day the teams combined for only six hits, the Giants scored their only run on a misplay. Cabrera, starting in place of in jured All-Star Mike Lowell, charged in on Alfonzo’s fourth-in ning bunt and made a wild throw to first. By the time the ball had stopped it was in the bullpen dirt and Rich Aurilia was headed for home. Alou had said the key for Schmidt was to keep his pitch count down — and that happened. The lanky right-hander with the league’s lowest ERA worked ahead in the count and was at 79 pitches through six. “It’s unbelievable,” reliever Scott Eyre said. “I know postsea son outings have no bearing on the Cy Young, but... He’s just awe some to watch pitch.” After Alex Gonzalez reached on an error in the fifth, Schmidt retired the final 14 batters. Schmidt walked none and struck out five. Schmidt pitched the first post season shutout for the Giants since Dave Dravecky beat St. Louis in Game 2 of the 1987 NL championship series. Beckett was almost as impres sive in his playoff debut. He gave up two hits in seven innings, striking out nine and walking five. At 23, Beckett is seven years younger than Schmidt, but he didn’t pitch like it. “He’s tough,” Beckett said. “He threw probably 100 fastballs and I don’t think he made a mistake on one of them. He outpitched me, what can I say?” Beckett worked out of a first-in ning jam after Ray Durham hit a leadoff double. Durham went to third on J.T. Snow’s flyout and after Bonds was walked with two outs, Alfonzo flied out. Beckett retired seven consecu tive batters, including five straight strikeouts before walking Aurilia in the fourth. Before Bonds’ fourth-inning at bat, Beckett huddled on the mound with Rodriguez and pitch ing coach Wayne Rosenthal — cer tainly discussing how to approach him this time around. PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS J.T. Snow hands the game ball to pitcher Jason Schmidt as the Giants celebrate the 2-0 win over the Florida Marlins on Monday. Minnesota surprises Yankees with 3-1 victory in Bronx THE ASSOCIATED I'KKSS NEW YORK- Instead of getting tight when Johan Santana cramped up, the Minnesota Twins stayed loose. Playing a postseason game in Yankee Stadium for the first time, the Twins were guarding a one run lead in the fifth inning when their pitcher suddenly couldn’t go to the mound for the bottom half. “One thing you don’t do is show panic in the dugout,” Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire said. “So I just said, ‘Well, let’s have some fun. We are going to piece it together.’ And that’s what we did.” Those pesky Twins put the big, bad Yankees in another postsea son funk. Torii Hunter circled the bases when his line drive resulted in a pair of misplays that led to two sixth-inning runs, and the Twins finally beat New York, tripping up the stumbling Yankees 3-1 in Tuesday’s AL playoff opener. New York had rolled over the Twins during the past two sea sons, going 13-0 and outscoring them 90-36. But it’s the little guys who take a 1-0 lead into Game 2 Thursday night, when Brad Radke pitches against Andy Pettitte. After Santana’s injury, Rick Reed, J.C. Romero, LaTroy Hawkins and Eddie Guardado combined to allow five hits and one run. Meanwhile, Bernie Williams failed to cut off Hunter’s liner to center, and Alfonso Soriano made an error that gave Hunter what’s often called a Little League home run. Williams also flopped flat on his belly rounding first base in the day’s comic highlight, and New York’s batters went l-for-10 with runners in scoring position, get ting an RBI infield single from Soriano in the ninth. “When the game gets sloppy and the ball gets thrown around, that makes it tough,” said Mike Mussina, who had been 20-2 against the Twins. “That’s what the post season is, minimizing mistakes. If you make a mistake in the postsea son, they tend to be big ones.” Despite their troubles, the Yankees threatened to pull off yet another memorable ninth-inning comeback. But a spectacular leap ing catch by Shannon Stewart against the left-field wall on a drive by Hideki Matsui helped Guardado limit New York to one run. “We certainly didn’t have a lot of opportunities,” Yankees man ager Joe Torre said. “And when • we did, we didn’t get the base hit, up until the ninth inning. ” The Yankees knew they had opened with a stinker. “There’s nobody in this club house that took them for granted,” Pettitte said. “They went further in the playoffs last year than we did.” Interested in taking The Gamecock’s Sports Challengd? If you can beat the editors, you’ll win a free Gamecock T-Shirt. Send in your picks to gamecocksports@hotmail.com by 2 p.m. Thursday. We’ll select ONE person at random to be our reader of the week, whose picks will appear in Friday’s issue. This week’s games: Ole Miss at 24 Florida 16 Kansas State at 13 Texas 7 Tennessee at Auburn Texas A&M at Texas Tech Alabama at 11 Georgia N.C. State at 6 Georgia Tech Rankings are from 10 USC at Arizona State Wisconsin at Penn State The Associated Press. 9 Michigan at 22 Iowa Clemson at Maryland ♦ FOR TIE-BREAKING PURPOSES, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR SCORE FOR THE CLEMSON-MARYLAND GAME. AND DON’T FORGET TO INCLUDE YOUR NAME! Cubs break 58-year road-game losing streak with 4-2 victory BY PAUL NEWBERRY THE ASSOCIATED I'HESS ATLANTA — They came by the thousands, intent on helping their beloved Cubbies break a 58-year losing streak in postseason road games by transforming Turner Field into Wrigley Field South. It worked. Kerry Wood allowed only two hits and drove in the go-ahead runs with a double in the sixth in ning off Russ Ortiz, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 4-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of their NL division series Tuesday night. Wood’s two-run double, which broke a 1-all tie, made him the first Cubs pitcher to drive in the game-winning run in a postsea son game since Orval Overall in the 1907 World Series. But it was Wood’s work on the mound that stood out. He com pletely throttled the high-scoring Braves, a team that produced six players with 20 homers and four with 100 RBIs during the regular season. Wood struck out 11 in 71-3 in nings. The only major slip-up came in the third, when Marcus Giles homered. Trailing 4-1, Atlanta scored a run and knocked out Wood with out getting a hit. A questionable call at first on a potential inning ending double play allowed the run to score. But Kyle Farnsworth retired Javy Lopez on a bases-loaded grounder to short, and Joe Borowski allowed a hit but struck out the side in the ninth for the save — completing the three-hit ter. Lost in the hoopla over Chicago’s 95-year drought with out a World Series title was this little nugget: The Cubs had lost eight straight postseason road games since Claude Passeau pitched a one-hitter to beat Detroit in Game 3 of 1945 World Series. Of course, the Cubs went on to lose that World Series, falling to the Tigers in seven games. They have lost 10 straight postseason series since winning their last World Series title in 1908. Maybe this time will be differ ent. On the first day of spring training, first-year manager Dusty Baker told his players to forget the past and create some new Cubs’ history. The two teams will meet again tonight at 7 p.m. I — Orientation Leader Benefits •Develop communication and group leadership skills • Gain professional experience working for USC *Eam excellent placement and resume references •Discover the inner workings of USC •Help new students and parents adjust to University life •Summer housing provided •Receive $12.00 an hour during orientation sessions Responsibilities • Work during Sumer, Fall, and Spring Orientations • Attend weekly training meetings in the Spring Requirements •Be a full-time undergraduate student •Have a minimum cumulative 2.5 GPAto apply •Be in good standing with the University « Informations and Applications are available in the Student Orientation Office, 345 Russell House or call 777-2780 for additional info, email: uscorientation@gwm.sc.edu The deadline for applying is October 31. Some follow... _ Others Lead USC Orientation Leader ‘Tfc exfttnteKCt af <t t^cCimr!