ASSOCIATED PRESS
Waipahu High alumnus Jerome Williams gave up just an unearned run on two hits in six innings yesterday.
Williams makes
himself at home
in ArizonaAsian Pacific Day makes
the Waipahu alum comfortable
for an 8-1 road win
over the Diamondbacks
PHOENIX >> It was as if the Arizona Diamondbacks had tossed out the lauhala welcome mat yesterday just for him.
It was Asian Pacific Day at Bank One Ballpark and, an hour before Jerome Williams trotted out to the mound, the rookie pitcher for the San Francisco Giants was feeling right at home.
It was an island-style 81 degrees -- minus the tradewinds -- inside the covered ballpark. There was a Chinese lion dance and a halau whose performance included a nose flute player and a hula.
If the Waipahu High product was feeling nervous in his first appearance here -- and his first-ever match-up with the Diamondbacks -- it only showed when he arrived at the field for his second day-game start. The field's retractable roof was open and "I asked the cabdriver if they were going to close it," said Williams, appearing in his ninth Major League game. "I was worried. It was like 100-something outside.
"But you have to go out there and pitch. You can't hold nothing back."
Williams threw hard. And harder. For 101 pitches, 62 of which were strikes. He picked up his fifth straight victory as San Francisco defeated Arizona 8-1. Williams gave up one unearned run, two hits and walked three in six innings.
The 21-year-old also struck out seven, matching his major league high, set on July 2 in a 4-1 win at St. Louis. He is the fourth rookie pitcher in the Giants' storied record book to win five straight, and the first since John Burkett in 1990.
"The Giants have a very good pitcher and he's just 21," said Giants manager Felipe Alou after his team upped their NL West lead to six games over the Diamondbacks. "We just need to keep him healthy, mentally and physically.
"His slider and curve were pretty good today. He was throwing no-hit, no-run ball today and it was legitimate stuff."
When Williams headed out to the mound at 1:17 p.m. yesterday, San Francisco already had a 1-0 cushion. It came courtesy of Ray Durham's 363-foot shot over the right-field wall that opened the game and quickly spoiled the return of Arizona pitcher Curt Schilling.
Williams' first pitch was a 92-mph fastball down the middle of the plate, the first of his 62 strikes. It took two minutes to record his first out, getting Craig Counsell to guess on a 2-2 pitch and tap weakly to second.
His curve was working well from the start. Just ask Arizona's Matt Kata, Arizona's No. 2 hitter, who was fooled on a 2-2 pitch for the first of Williams' strikeouts.
"That's the best curveball I've been throwing all year," said Williams. "Fortunately, I've been getting people out with it."
Williams (5-1) broke out the slider against Alex Cintron, striking out the Arizona shortstop to end the second, his third strikeout in five batters.
Things were going very well for Williams in his third start in 10 days. He hadn't lost since his MLB debut on April 26, a 10-2 defeat at Philadelphia when he gave up five runs, all earned.
The last time San Francisco played here at Bank One Ballpark was in late May, when the Giants took the series 2-1. Williams wasn't with the big club then, having been sent back down to the Fresno Grizzlies of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.
Williams was called back up on June 3 ... and hasn't lost since.
"The biggest difference since April ... it's my control," said Williams. "It's a lot better. I feel more comfortable.
"The first time, I was just a nervous kid, pitching against guys I've been looking up to. Now, I'm more relaxed."
The maturity showed in the fifth when Williams faltered slightly. The bases were loaded with none out. Steve Finley was on via a fielding error by J.T. Snow; Cintron had broken up the no-hitter on Williams' 68th pitch, a single through the hole at short, and David Dellucci followed with a single to right.
"J.T. missed that ball. He said, 'I'm sorry.' I told him not to worry about it, just keep going. That's what I did."
Giants catcher Yorvit Torrealba helped. He had several conversations on the mound with Williams.
"He helps me with my mechanics," said Williams. "Sometimes I was opening up, my shoulder wasn't closed. He told me to take a deep breath, just relax."
Williams struck out Chad Moeller, then worked Schilling out of a 3-1 count into a foul pop-up behind first.
Williams' bid for his second career shutout was ruined when he walked Counsell to force in Finley from third with two outs.
With the bases still loaded, Williams got out of the jam throwing three consecutive strikes to Kata, the last two wicked change-ups.
Williams saw only four more Arizona batters, closing out the sixth with his seventh strikeout. Just five days earlier, he notched his second complete-game victory, a seven-hitter against St. Louis.
"He has a tremendous head for the game," Alou said of Williams. "He uses everything when he's out there, change-up, slider, fastball. ... When you pitch like that, there's always a possibility of getting out of a big jam like he did today.
"He had back-to-back tough innings (fifth and sixth) with a lot of pitches. If you leave a guy in like that, particularly a young guy, you're taking the risk of injury. That's why we took him out."
Some two hours after throwing his first pitch, Williams headed to the dugout, having thrown consistently at 90 mph. He also had his first career sacrifice bunts, one coming in the fifth, the other in the sixth.
During Friday's batting practice, he had worked especially hard on bunting.
"I'm struggling with my hitting," said Williams, who is 1-for-13 this season. "But every game is a new game. I'm working on it."
Williams is working on other things, too -- such as not being overwhelmed by big ballparks and big names.
He's also trying to share his Hawaii roots with his teammates. Williams' ethnicity includes Hawaiian, American Indian, African, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese and Filipino.
"Once I saw it was Asian Pacific Day, the (taiko) drums, the lion dance, I felt right at home," he said. "I stood up in the dugout when the Hawaiian stuff happened, started singing because I knew all the words. The guys looked at me and I told them, 'Yeah, that's my heritage.' "
Notes: Barry Bonds homered for his fifth consecutive game with his solo shot in the fourth. He has homered in Williams' last three starts. It was Bonds' 30th home run of the season and his 12th straight season with 30 or more homers. The last player to hit 30 or more home runs in 12 straight seasons was Jimmie Foxx (1929-40).
Giants 8, Diamondbacks 1
a-struck out for Dellucci in the 7th. b-was hit by pitch for Villarreal in the 8th.
San Francisco AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Durham 2b 4 1 2 1 1 0 .300 Snow 1b 4 1 1 1 0 0 .277 Grissom cf 5 1 1 0 0 2 .314 Bonds lf 4 2 2 3 0 0 .319 JoCruz rf 3 1 0 0 2 1 .259 Aurilia ss 5 0 0 0 0 1 .256 Alfonzo 3b 5 0 1 1 0 2 .236 Torrealba c 3 2 1 0 1 0 .261 JeWilliams p 1 0 0 0 0 1 .077 Eyre p 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000 FRodriguez p 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 Nathan p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Totals 35 8 8 6 4 7 Arizona AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Counsell 3b-ss 3 0 0 1 2 1 .271 Kata 2b 4 0 0 0 0 3 .344 LGonzalez lf 3 0 0 0 1 0 .307 Hillenbrand 1b-3b 3 0 0 0 1 1 .350 SFinley cf 4 1 1 0 0 0 .307 Cintron ss 3 0 1 0 0 2 .294 Villarreal p 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 b-Terrero ph-rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Dellucci rf 2 0 1 0 0 1 .255 a-McCracken ph-rf 2 0 0 0 0 2 .234 MMyers p 0 0 0 0 0 0 --- Raggio p 0 0 0 0 0 0 --- Moeller c 3 0 0 0 1 2 .309 Schilling p 2 0 0 0 0 0 .083 Oropesa p 0 0 0 0 0 0 --- Baerga 1b 2 0 0 0 0 1 .329 Totals 31 1 3 1 5 13 San Francisco 100 112 210 -- 8 8 1 Arizona 000 010 000 -- 1 3 2 E--Snow (3), Schilling (2), Baerga (2). LOB--San Francisco 8, Arizona 9. 2B--Bonds (11), Alfonzo (14). HR--Bonds (30), off Schilling; Durham (4), off Schilling. RBIs--Durham (19), Snow (38), Bonds 3 (63), Alfonzo (33), Counsell (15). S--JeWilliams 2.
Runners left in scoring position--San Francisco 4 (Durham 2, Grissom, Alfonzo); Arizona 6 (Counsell, Kata 2, Hillenbrand, McCracken 2).
Runners moved up--Durham, Eyre, Kata.
Oropesa pitched to 3 batters in the 7th.
San Francisco IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA JeWilliams W, 5-1 6 2 1 0 3 7 102 2.64 Eyre 1 2/3 1 0 0 2 4 36 3.32 FRodriguez 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 10 3.48 Nathan 1 0 0 0 0 1 20 3.81 Arizona IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Schilling L, 4-4 6 6 5 4 2 5 94 3.27 Oropesa 0 2 2 2 0 0 14 3.12 Villarreal 2 0 1 0 1 2 28 2.75 MMyers 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 3 5.55 Raggio 2/3 0 0 0 1 0 8 6.48 Inherited runners-scored--FRodriguez 2-0, Villarreal 1-0.
HBP--by FRodriguez (Terrero), by Oropesa (Snow), by Schilling (Bonds). WP--Eyre.
Umpires--Home, Tony Randazzo; First, Ted Barrett; Second, C.B. Bucknor; Third, Tim McClelland.
T--3:15. A--45,653 (49,033).
