[ MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ]
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jerome Williams became the 14th player born in Hawaii to win a Major-League game when he beat the A's yesterday.
Williams a winner
on major stageThe Waipahu alumnus beats Oakland's
Tim Hudson to get his first major league win
OAKLAND >> Jerome Williams will take his time deciding just what to write on the game ball from his first career win.
A dedication to his late mother, Deborah, is a good possibility.
"I might stay up all night, just thinking, thinking about my mother," the Waipahu High School alumnus said. "I'm just going to stay home. Try to go sleep. Celebrate? Maybe tomorrow."
The rookie right-hander pitched 6 1/3 strong innings to earn his first victory and the San Francisco Giants snapped Oakland's season-best seven-game winning streak with a 6-4 victory last night.
Pedro Feliz had his first career two-homer game to help give Williams some early run support.
Williams (1-1) allowed only one hit through the first five innings and four total to win in his fifth big league start, outpitching Tim Hudson before a sellout crowd of 52,888.
"It was great," Williams said. "I didn't know there were 52,000. That's the most people I've ever seen. Geez."
The 21-year-old Williams, who lost his mother two years ago after a six-year battle with breast cancer, was coming off three straight no-decisions after losing his debut April 26 at Philadelphia. But he had pitched well enough to win in all of his outings since being recalled from Triple-A Fresno on June 3 to replace the injured Kurt Ainsworth.
Williams calmly worked through the A's order, retiring 10 of the first 12 batters, including retiring the side order in the first and third innings. He also got a 1-2-3 fifth.
"He doesn't get excited or nervous," manager Felipe Alou said. "I was impressed."
Williams said his fastball was his out-pitch.
"Basically the whole game. When I came up (pitching coach) Dave Righetti and (catcher) Benito Santiago told me don't shy away from the fastball. They said at this level you have to go with your best pitch, and they'll sit on the breaking pitches," Williams said in a phone interview with the Star-Bulletin. "Also the fastball is your best chance for a first-pitch strike and it's all about getting ahead in the count. That's the No. 1 key."
Tim Worrell got six outs for his 17th save in 20 tries, escaping a bases-loaded jam in the eighth by getting Eric Byrnes to fly out.
The Giants, who had lost five of seven, got the offense Alou has desperately been looking for despite starting only five regulars.
After Friday's 5-3 loss, Alou said there could be a shakeup to the lineup if his starters didn't start producing, but insisted before yesterday's game that he hasn't gotten to that point yet.
After the Dodgers beat Anaheim earlier yesterday, San Francisco fell into second place in the NL West for the first time all season -- even if it was only for a few hours. The Giants are tied with Los Angeles.
Feliz went 3-for-5 and got a rare start in left field as Barry Bonds played designated hitter.
"The way I see it, I think I deserve to play," said Feliz, who's hitting .256 in 39 games.
Feliz hit the first pitch he saw in the first for a two-run homer to center against Hudson (5-3) as the Giants took a 2-0 lead, and then singled in the third. Feliz connected for his sixth homer of the year in the seventh, a solo shot over the barbecue pit in left field to make it 6-1.
"They were just awful pitches," Hudson said. "They were so bad, they shouldn't even count. I didn't make any of the pitches I wanted, especially in the early innings."
Williams left after Eric Chavez singled and Ramon Hernandez doubled with one out in the seventh. The Giants used four more pitchers in the inning, with Terrence Long hitting an RBI infield single off Scott Eyre and Byrnes hitting a two-run single against Felix Rodriguez to make it 6-4.
"I was getting nervous," Williams said. "I told the guys I couldn't watch so I went into the clubhouse to listen to music. I popped in a Hawaiian CD and thought about my mom."
Eyre poured two bottles of beer down Williams' back after the game.
"The guys are a lot of fun," Williams said when asked about being the victim of pranks because he's a rookie. "Jason Schmidt gets me every day. Even Barry Bonds. He cracks jokes with me every time."
Jason Christiansen allowed a single to Scott Hatteberg to load the bases before Joe Nathan came on and got out of the jam by getting Miguel Tejada to foul out and Erubiel Durazo on a groundout. Oakland stranded nine runners.
"We had three saves tonight -- Nathan, and Worrell twice," Alou said.
The A's are 8-3 during their 12-game homestand, which concludes today with the third of six games in the Bay Bridge series. The Giants have not won a series in Oakland since sweeping a two-game set in 1998. The teams play next weekend in Pacific Bell Park.
Giants outfielder Carlos Valderrama, recalled from Triple-A Fresno before the game, reached on an infield single in the sixth for his first career hit.
The Giants scored three in a messy third inning in which the A's committed two errors that led to one unearned run.
Hudson, coming off his first win in five starts last Sunday, had his nine-game regular-season winning streak in the Coliseum snapped.
Hudson allowed 11 hits and six runs in seven innings.
Star-Bulletin reporter Dave Reardon and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Giants 6, Athletics 4
E--Tejada (12), RaHernandez (4). LOB--San Francisco 6, Oakland 9. 2B--Alfonzo (9), RaHernandez (13). HR--Feliz 2 (6), off THudson 2. RBIs--Alfonzo (27), Feliz 3 (18), BSantiago (38), Byrnes 2 (37), Tejada (46), Long (28). CS--Feliz (1). SF--Tejada. GIDP--JoCruz, Dye.
San Francisco AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Durham 2b 5 1 1 0 0 1 .313 Alfonzo 3b 4 2 1 1 1 1 .227 Feliz lf 5 2 3 3 0 0 .256 Grissom cf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .306 Bonds dh 3 1 2 0 1 0 .308 BSantiago c 4 0 1 1 0 0 .291 Galarraga 1b 4 0 1 0 0 0 .356 NPerez ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 .282 JoCruz rf 4 0 0 0 0 1 .254 Valderrama cf-lf 4 0 1 0 0 2 .250 Totals 37 6 11 5 2 5 Oakland AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Byrnes cf 4 1 1 2 1 1 .330 Hatteberg 1b 5 0 2 0 0 0 .269 Tejada ss 4 0 0 1 0 0 .230 Durazo dh 4 0 0 0 1 1 .289 Dye rf 2 0 0 0 1 0 .164 EChavez 3b 4 1 1 0 0 1 .250 RaHernandez c 4 1 3 0 0 0 .284 Long lf 4 1 1 1 0 0 .237 MEllis 2b 2 0 0 0 1 1 .250 Totals 33 4 8 4 4 4 San Francisco 203 000 100 -- 6 11 0 Oakland 000 001 300 -- 4 8 2
Runners left in scoring position--San Francisco 2 (Durham, NPerez); Oakland 5 (Byrnes 2, Durazo 2, Long).
Runners moved up--Long.
DP--San Francisco 1 (Durham, NPerez and Galarraga); Oakland 1 (MEllis, Tejada and Hatteberg).
Eyre pitched to 1 batter in the 7th, FRodriguez pitched to 2 batters in the 7th, Christiansen pitched to 1 batter in the 7th, Nathan pitched to 1 batter in the 8th.
San Francisco IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA JeWilliams W, 1-1 6 1/3 4 3 3 3 3 102 4.82 Eyre 0 1 1 1 0 0 2 3.86 FRodriguez 0 1 0 0 0 0 13 4.05 Christiansen 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 9.00 Nathan H, 8 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 9 4.50 Worrell S, 17 2 1 0 0 1 1 27 1.85 Oakland IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA THudson L, 5-3 7 11 6 5 2 5 110 3.28 Mecir 1 0 0 0 0 0 9 3.18 Rincon 1 0 0 0 0 0 7 4.01
Inherited runners-scored--Eyre 2-1, FRodriguez 2-2, Christiansen 2-0, Nathan 3-0, Worrell 1-0.
IBB--off THudson (Bonds) 1. HBP--by Nathan (Dye), by FRodriguez (MEllis).
Umpires--Home, Eric Cooper; First, Tim Timmons; Second, Matt Hollowell; Third, Bill Hohn.
T--2:57. A--52,888 (43,662).
