Football
18y

Olsen outduels Morris as Marlins top Bonds, Giants

MIAMI (AP) -- Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants could have
used a night to rest.

A day after hitting his 715th homer to move past Babe Ruth into
second place on baseball's career list, Bonds and his teammates
looked like a club drained by the historic milestone and a
subsequent cross-country flight in a 5-1 loss to the Florida
Marlins on Monday night.

Mike Jacobs hit a solo homer and Scott Olsen pitched seven
strong innings for Florida, which took advantage of San Francisco's
weariness.

"We had a good frame of mind, but our bodies were not there. We
seemed dead out there," Giants manager Felipe Alou said.

Bonds, who only has Hank Aaron ahead of him on the home run
list, was 1-for-4 with a single. Asked if the slugger -- playing for
the fourth straight day -- appeared tired, Alou reiterated the
entire team was fatigued.

"I feel tired and I'm not even playing," the manager said. "I
think everybody here needs a good night's sleep."

The Marlins rebounded from losing the last two games of a
weekend series against the New York Mets. Olsen (3-3) allowed one
run and five hits before being replaced by Logan Kensing, who got
Bonds to foul out in deep left field with one runner on in the
eighth. Joe Borowski worked the ninth to finish the five-hitter.

Jacobs homered off Matt Morris (3-6) in the fourth inning,
giving the Marlins a 1-0 lead with his sixth drive of the season.
Josh Willingham and Jeremy Hermida added RBI singles off the Giants
starter in the sixth.

Morris allowed six hits and three runs in six innings. The
former St. Louis right-hander struck out four and walked one,
losing for the sixth time in his last seven decisions with his new
team.

"You come into a new situation and you want to lead by
example," Morris said. "Obviously this isn't where you want to
be."

Dan Uggla made it 5-1 with a two-run single off Brian Wilson in
the seventh.

Ray Durham hit his fourth homer in the seventh for the Giants.

Olsen, who feared he was on the verge of being demoted to the
minors after struggling in his previous two starts, called the
outing the best of his career.

"That's pretty much all the motivation you need," Olsen said.

A small, but mostly appreciative crowd stood and cheered Bonds
when he stepped up to the plate for his first at-bat and again when
he singled off Olsen in the fourth.

"He's an exciting player to watch. You never take our eyes off
him when he's hitting," Marlins manager Joe Girardi said. "You
don't do that with all hitters."

The announced crowd of 7,683 at Dolphin Stadium was the smallest
Bonds has played in front of this season. The sparse gathering on a
night when the Miami Heat hosted Game 4 of the NBA Eastern
Conference finals didn't surprise at least one of Bonds' teammates.

"I played in Montreal when Sammy (Sosa) and (Mark) McGwire were
doing their thing and they had crowds of 5,000," reliever Steve
Kline said.

Despite Monday night's loss, Kline thinks Bonds moving ahead of
Ruth has helped restore order in the San Francisco clubhouse.

"We got accustomed to it," Kline said. "But now we can go
back to the way it was before 714 and 715. Maybe guys can relax a
little more."

Game Notes
Alou said Bonds will be in the lineup again Tuesday night,
then will be given Wednesday off. That will give the slugger two
days of rest before the Giants open a weekend series in New York.
... Bonds said he has no plans to contact Andrew Morbitzer -- the
fan who wound up with the ball he hit for his 715th home run -- in
hopes of retrieving the momento. "Why?" he said. "If I had it, I
wouldn't give it back." ... Uggla, who went 2-for-4, has hit
safely in 16 of his last 19 games.

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