Two to tango

Giants turn three double plays in final five innings

Shortstop Rich Aurilia was involved in all three of the Giants' twin killings. AP

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The San Francisco Giants found one way to slow down the Anaheim Angels' powerful offense -- get two outs at a time.

Three times in the final five innings, the Giants turned a double play to end the inning and an Angels' scoring threat.

San Francisco beat Anaheim 4-3 Wednesday night to leave the World Series tied at two games apiece.

"Any time you can get two outs on one play it's big," Giants first baseman J.T. Snow said. "Kirk (Rueter) got a lot of groundballs when we needed them. Those were big."

The Angels came into the game with a .353 average and scoring eight runs per game in the Series as the Giants had no answers for their lethal lineup.

Anaheim scored three runs in the first three innings and it looked as if the Giants could be facing their third straight loss.

Then the double plays helped keep the Angels at bay and the Giants hitters rallied for the win.

"The double plays were huge," Giants second baseman Jeff Kent said. "Those are the things that shut down a rally. The more times you can eliminate an extra batter coming to the plate, the better chance you have to win."

Turning double plays is not easy against the Angels, who constantly put runners in motion to avoid them. Anaheim hit into the second-fewest double plays in the majors this season with 105.

"We kept getting the hits, but we kept hitting into double plays," Anaheim's David Eckstein said. "They did a great job pitching to get the double plays."

The first one came in the fifth inning after Garret Anderson blooped a one-out single. Troy Glaus, who tied a postseason record with his seventh homer in his previous at-bat, stepped to the plate looking to extend a 3-0 lead.

Instead he hit a grounder to shortstop Rich Aurilia, who flipped to Kent to start the inning-ending double play.

"The double plays shut down their team and got the fans on our side," Kent said.

After the Giants tied it in the bottom of the fifth, the Angels put the leadoff man on in the sixth against Rueter.

Following Benji Gil's strikeout, Rueter got Bengie Molina to hit a hard grounder to first base. Snow fielded it and threw to Aurilia at second. Aurilia fired a strike to Rueter covering at first. Rueter pumped his fist repeatedly after the out that ended another inning.

"You have to give credit to their good pitching," Eckstein said. "Rueter will induce a lot of double plays. We hit the ball pretty good but we kept hitting it right at somebody and they did a good job turning them."

The Angels didn't get another baserunner until Adam Kennedy's one-out single in the ninth. But pinch-hitter Brad Fullmer hit a grounder right to Aurilia, who stepped on second and threw to first to end the game.

The Angels started the game by thwarting the Giants with double plays. Twice Anaheim intentionally walked Barry Bonds to load the bases with one out and both times Benito Santiago followed with an inning-ending double play.

Santiago slammed his helmet into the dugout wall in disgust after his third-inning double play.

 

Related information

Stories

Giants edge Angels, even World Series at 2-2

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video