HOUSTON – Three hours before last night’s game between the Astros and Giants, Houston starter Wandy Rodriguez sat in a corner of the clubhouse. Teammates Willy Taveras and Fernando Nieve kidded the 27-year-old in Spanish about how far Barry Bonds’ home run would travel off of him.
Rodriguez became the latest pitcher to face the possibility of being the man who gave up Bonds’ historic 714th home run.
Bonds has been sitting one behind Babe Ruth on the all-time list since May 7. Since hitting No.
713 off Phillie starter Jon Lieber that night, Bonds had faced 15 different pitchers. Each went to the mound with the chance to be the man who gave up No. 714. But each has walked away unmarked by history thanks to Bonds’ struggles.
Rodriguez entered last night’s game 5-1 with a 3.02 ERA, so his teammates were not worried that the specter of facing Bonds in this situation would rattle him.
“I don’t think so,” former Yankee Andy Pettitte said. “He’s been pretty solid. He got the chance to pitch in the World Series last year for us. He came in, wasn’t fazed.” Pettitte is not pitching in this series, but the veteran left-hander said that if he was, he would not care if he were the pitcher who gave up Bonds’ historic blast.
“The guy’s hit so many home runs,” Pettitte said. “He’s going to hit the home run off somebody. You might make the great pitch and he’s going to hit it out. He’s a great hitter. It’s just a matter of, as far as I look at it, who he happens to be facing that night where he puts the swing on the pitch.” Bonds’ struggles since his monster shot in Philly have been well documented. He was in a 2-for-22 funk, and had been fooled by unknown pitchers like Joe Beimel and Trever Miller.
Bonds is expected to sit tonight’s game with Houston, so last night figure to be his last chance to do it in tiny Minute Maid Park. The Giants travel to Oakland this weekend, and Bonds probably will be the designated hitter in two games and sit one game.
Despite Bonds’ recent performance, pitchers still are showing him respect. It seems no one is sure whether to believe the current version of Bonds is here to stay, or whether the 2002 version is just an at-bat away.
“He’s human,” Pettitte said. “Over the course of this year he’s going to rattle off a lot of home runs in a short period of time unless he’s extremely banged up health-wise.
That might be what’s causing him problems now.” Astro catcher Brad Ausmus wondered yesterday whether all of the things surrounding Bonds these days – from the pursuit of Ruth to possible perjury charges – were weighing on the slugger.
“He’s got an inordinate amount of pressure on him,” Ausmus said.
“Not just passing Babe Ruth, but he’s got a whole truckload of other stuff that he’s dealing with.”
