The greatest threat

Cards find out that dealing with Bonds is a real nightmare

SAN FRANCISCO -- This is Barry Bonds' postseason. J.T. Snow, Benito Santiago, Robb Nen, Rich Aurilia ... yeah, yeah, yeah, they're fine and all.

These playoffs belong to Bonds.

The greatest athlete in team sports today is just a step away from the game's biggest showcase. One more win and Bonds, after 17 years as arguably the best player ever to pull on a batting helmet, will play in his first World Series. For a guy who owns the sport, it seems only fitting.

Sunday night in a chilly Pacific Bell Park, the San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3, to take a 3-1 lead in the first-to-four National League Championship Series. The Giants -- Bonds' Giants -- will try to wrap up the National League pennant and their trip to the World Series on Monday night at home.

There are a ton of heroes on this San Francisco team. But, really, there's no question what -- or who -- makes this team run. And it's not so much for what he's done, but for what he threatens to do.

The threat of Bonds makes managers defy the most hidebound of baseball logic. The threat of Bonds makes pitchers hyperventilate and tremble in their spikes. More importantly, the threat of what Bonds can do with his bat wins games for the Giants. Just the threat.

Bonds came to the plate four times on Sunday, with a single in his first at-bat and a groundout in his second. The Cardinals survived both of those encounters. That's all they'd survive.

In the sixth, with a 2-0 lead and a man on first, the Cardinals decided to walk Bonds, putting the tying run on base. It didn't go down as an intentional walk. But a meeting at the mound before Bonds stepped into the box -- and the subsequent four unhittable pitches -- showed what the Cardinals were thinking.

Two batters later, first baseman Snow's double off the wall in left-center tied the score. Bonds smiled as he streaked toward home with the tying run.

"We like it [when Bonds walks]," Snow said. "It's much better hitting with men on base. They're focusing so much energy on what to do with Barry. The guys in the middle of the order and further down, we feel like we can get the hit."

In the eighth, with two outs, the bases empty and the score tied at 2-2, the Cardinals again bucked baseball basics by intentionally walking Bonds, putting the winning run on base.

The next batter, catcher Santiago, turned on a 3-2 fastball from reliever Rick White and blasted it into the bleachers in left field for the game-winning home run. Again, Bonds smiled as he trotted toward home.

"A lot of times strategy is judged on whether it works. So it didn't work. Bad strategy," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "Bonds is the most dangerous hitter in the game right now. It's tough to walk in that clubhouse with giving him the chance to get the hit to beat you. Santiago has been very tough. But [getting beaten by him] is a little easier to take."

Bonds is hitting .333 in this NLCS with a homer, a triple and five RBIs. That hardly tells what a threat he's been. Bonds has been walked nine times in four games, tying an LCS record. He has scored five runs, more than anyone on either team. He has given guys like Snow and Santiago the chance to be heroes, and they have run with it.

The Cardinals have played Bonds the only way a team should play a man who clubbed 73 homers last season, who hit .370 this season, who set a single-season record this year with a .582 on-base percentage.

The Cardinals have avoided him at all costs. At any cost.

"He could have Babe Ruth hitting behind him," teammate Aurilia said of Bonds, "and they'd still walk him."

Tony Gwynn once said that Bonds can see whether a pitch is going to be hittable as it leaves the pitcher's hand. That explains why, many times, Bonds gives up on a pitch before it comes close to the plate. He almost never is fooled.

Sometimes, too, it looks as if Bonds may intentionally take a pitch or two just to get the pitcher to come back with something he can hit. In effect, he plays with pitchers.

"He's like a world-class fisherman out there," Aurilia said, "trying to bait [them] in."

Whatever, the Giants are clearly where they are -- a win away from the World Series, where they would play the American League champion Anaheim Angels -- because of Bonds. Whether he slams a home run or forces a walk, everything the Giants do is based on what other teams do with Bonds.

Pitch to him? Pitch around him? In the end, it really doesn't matter. The threat of Bonds is all that counts.

The Angels will find out soon enough.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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