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Power drain Arizona's offense fails to get untracked in Game 2
Updated: Wednesday October 10, 2001 9:19 PM
PHOENIX (AP) -- The Arizona Diamondbacks followed up a classic pitching performance with a classic pratfall. Staked to a 1-0 lead in their NL playoff series against St. Louis by Curt Schilling's three-hitter on Tuesday, Arizona's brightest stars fizzled Wednesday as the Cardinals beat the Diamondbacks 4-1 behind Woody Williams. The twin problems that cropped up sporadically during the regular season -- inexplicably silent bats and erratic pitching -- surfaced again despite Randy Johnson on the mound and Luis Gonzalez in the lineup. Johnson allowed six hits and three runs in eight innings on the way to his record seventh consecutive playoff loss. "Randy only made one bad pitch," first baseman Mark Grace said. "I feel bad that we didn't do a little better for him." The Diamondbacks, who were 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position in the first game, managed just four hits and five baserunners off Williams. No one reached second base until Craig Counsell got there after singling to lead off the eighth. Counsell scored on a groundout by Steve Finley, but Gonzalez crowned his miserable two-game performance by grounding out to Albert Pujols at first to end the rally. "We've got to find a way to score some more runs," Grace said. "I mean, you can't go out there and score one run and expect to beat the St. Louis Cardinals. We got away with it yesterday, but you're not going to get away with all the time." Arizona was fourth in NL team average (.267) and became the seventh NL team (first since St. Louis in 1979) to boast nine players with at least 100 hits. Gonzalez had 198 hits and led the team with a .325 average. He hit 57 home runs -- the eighth player in history with at least that many -- and had 419 total bases, ninth-best all-time. But he followed his 0-for-4 effort in the first game by going hitless in four at-bats in this one, dropping his postseason batting average to .200 (6-for-30). "They're pitching me tough," Gonzalez said. "They're pitching me in. I've just got to make adjustments. I'm not going to worry about it. I know I don't have any hits in this series, so I just look at it as I didn't get any today. Next game, hopefully I'll get some." Matt Williams, who struck out twice on Tuesday, fanned once and walked once, going 0-for-3 and made the last out of the game with a roller that Pujols also handled by himself. Williams is 0-for-7 in the series and was booed when he flied out with Grace aboard in the seventh. "It was very hurtful," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said. "He's a very proud man up there trying to do the best he can." Williams was Arizona's first baserunner when he walked in the second inning, but he stayed at first base when Jay Bell, hitting just behind him, took an inning-ending called third strike. Reggie Sanders got the first Diamondbacks' hit with a single up the middle in the fourth. But, again, there were two out and Sanders could only watch on his way to second when Mark Grace popped up. In the fifth, the Diamondbacks finally got a runner aboard with one out on a single by Bell. But Woody Williams got Matt Williams to pop up, then fanned Johnson for one of his nine strikeouts. Grace got the third Arizona hit in the seventh, and Counsell ignited the rally in the eighth when he and Greg Colbrunn delivered pinch-hit singles. Tony Womack advanced them with a sacrifice, and Finley had an RBI grounder.
"This is playoff baseball," said Counsell, who scored the winning run for Florida in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series. "This is what it's going to be like -- every day is going to be a grind and it's going to be tough to score runs, and we've got to come up with the big hits."
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