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Durham's eighth-inning single leads Giants past Reds

Sep 23, 2007 - 5:16 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- A day after the San Francisco Giants announced that Barry Bonds would not be back for the 2008 season, it was business as usual at the ballpark.

Ray Durham's two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning broke a scoreless tie and lifted the Giants to a 2-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday.

But the real news was still focused on Bonds, who announced Friday afternoon on his web site that he would not be back for a 16th season in San Francisco.

Before tonight's game, Bonds made his first comments to the media.

"I'm not taking this personally," Bonds said. "I feel that I did what I could for the 15 years I was here, and I'm proud of that and I'm not disappointed in that. I can walk out of here with my head high and I'm very proud. I know when there was a left fielder in San Francisco, there was no one better, and I'm proud of that."

"I'm proud of the fans and I'm proud of the family here, which I consider the fans part of my family in the city I grew up in. I have nothing to be ashamed of and they have nothing to be ashamed of. We had fun. For 15 years, we had a great time."

Bonds has not played since injuring his right big toe on September 15 in San Diego. He wishes a decision would have come sooner so he could thank the fans throughout the season.

"I can't answer that because I wasn't given that opportunity," Bonds said. "It could have been done earlier and we could have had a party all year long."

Durham's single snapped the Giants' four-game losing streak and made a winner out of Brad Hennessey (4-5), who pitched a scoreless top of the eighth. Brian Wilson set the Reds down in order in the ninth for his fifth save.

"After last night's loss we needed this," said Giants manager Bruce Bochy, whose team blew a five-run lead in the eighth in the 9-8 in 11 innings. "It's been a rough season but we don't want to finish the way things are going right now and hopefully we can win some ballgames the rest of the way."

In the bottom of the eighth, pinch hitter Pedro Feliz hit a one-out single to left-center and Rich Aurilia followed with a double to left putting runners at second and third.

Reliever Bill Bray (3-3) then intentionally walked pinch hitter Daniel Ortmeier to load the bases. Gary Majewski was summoned from the bullpen to face Omar Vizquel and got him to line out to short for the second out. Durham was the third pinch hitter of the inning and for the second straight game, Durham delivered a two-run single.

"I've had a lot of time to work on my swing," said Durham, who is batting just .218 with 11 home runs and 70 RBI. "But I still feel the same, still hitting, still working on things and fine tuning and trying to get something that's worked. I've had a tough year but the last two days I've gotten some big hits in clutch situations."

Both pitchers had an opportunity to help their own cause with the bases loaded but were unable to execute. Reds starter Bronson Arroyo flied out to left in the second while Kevin Correia struck out in his at-bat in the second inning.

The Reds' best chance to score was in the third when they had runners at first and second with nobody out. However, Correia got out of the jam unscathed by retiring the next three batters in order.

"Tonight not a whole lot happened for either team," Reds interim manager Pete Mackanin said. "You've got to tip your cap to Correia. He pitched extremely well and I liked what I saw from him. He mixed up his array of breaking stuff with a good fastball, and he spotted that. Arroyo pitched very well, kept us in the game till the end there. We just couldn't get anything started. We haven't been shut out in a while."

Correia pitched seven shutout innings, walking two with six strikeouts in his seventh start of the season. Correia has allowed two runs or fewer in each of his starts this year and is 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA.

"I'm happy that I could prove that I could do it," Correia said. "I didn't really have any more room for error. If I would have come out and not got the job done as a starter, I wasn't going to see another start in my career so I'm happy that I got the chance and I did what I needed to do."

Arroyo also pitched seven scoreless frames for the Reds and allowed five hits with five walks and two strikeouts.

"It's one of those games," Arroyo said. "Two guys running zeroes out on the board. If you're the home team you hope you get two in the bottom of the eighth and close it out in the ninth and go home. That's what happened. It worked out perfectly for them. That's the way those kind of games go. It's just one of them years, man. Hard for wins."