Enhanced Box Score of Intentional Walk w/Bases Loaded by Barry Bonds

Bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, two outs and your team is leading 8-6. Barry Bonds steps to the plate — what would you do? Buck Showalter defied convention and chose to intentionally walk the slugger making it a one run game. Brent Mayne batted next and lined out to right field on a 3-2 count and the manager was the hero. Would you have made the same call?

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"I hope they do it again next time and I'll hit another rocket off him. But, I've never seen anything like that, maybe in Little League if a guy is hitting .900 or something." - Brent Mayne who hit after the IBB

Barry Bonds

Barry Bonds

Intentional Base on Balls With The Bases Loaded on May 28, 1998 at 3Com Park

Arizona Diamondbacks
NAME POS AB R H RBI
Andy Fox 2b 4 2 2 1
Gregg Olson p 0 0 0 0
Devon White cf 5 1 2 1
Travis Lee 1b 5 1 0 1
Matt Williams 3b 5 2 3 0
David Dellucci lf 4 2 2 2
Jay Bell ss 4 0 2 1
Jorge Fabregas c 4 0 0 1
Amaury Telemaco p 0 0 0 0
Andy Stankiewicz 2b 0 0 0 0
Brent Brede rf 4 0 1 0
Brian Anderson p 3 0 0 0
Kelly Stinnett c 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 38 8 12 7
San Francisco Giants
NAME POS AB R H RBI
Darryl Hamilton cf 3 0 0 0
Bill Mueller 3b 3 1 0 0
Jeff Kent 2b 5 2 2 0
Charlie Hayes 1b 4 1 2 0
Stan Javier rf 5 0 1 2
Rich Aurilia ss 3 0 0 0
Russ Ortiz p 0 0 0 0
a-Marvin Benard ph 1 0 1 1
John Johnstone p 0 0 0 0
d-J.T. Snow ph 0 0 0 0
Chris Jones lf 3 2 2 1
b-Barry Bonds ph-lf 0 0 0 1
Brian Johnson c 3 1 1 2
c-Brent Mayne ph-c 1 0 0 0
Danny Darwin p 2 0 0 0
Rey Sanchez ss 1 0 0 0
TOTALS 34 7 9 7

a: Single for Ortiz in 8th inning.
b: Intentionally walked for Jones in 9th inning.
c: Lined out for Johnson in 9th inning.
d: Walk for Johnstone in 9th inning.

Caught Stealing: Kent.
GIDP: Lee.
Home Runs
: Delluccie, Jones, White, Fox, Johnson.
Double Plays: Dellucci-Lee, Kent-Aurilia-Hayes.
Left On Base: Arizona 9, San Francisco 10.

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Arizona 4 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 8 12 0
San Francisco 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 2 2 7 9 0
Arizona Diamondbacks
NAME IP H R ER BB SO
Brian Anderson 6.1 5 3 3 3 2
Amaury Telemaco 1.1 3 2 2 1 0
Gregg Olson 1.1 1 2 2 6 2
San Francisco Giants
NAME IP H R ER BB SO
Danny Darwin 6.1 9 7 7 4 7
Russ Ortiz 1.2 1 0 0 1 2
John Johnstone 1.0 2 1 1 1 1

Losing Pitching: Darwin.
Save: Olson.
Wild Pitch: Olson, Darwin.
Winning Pitcher: Anderson.

Attendance: 12,066.
Length of Game: 3:26.
Umpires: HP:Ed Montague, 1B:Dana DeMuth.
Umpires: 2B:Charlie Reliford, 3B:Paul Schrieber.
Intentional Base on Balls With The Bases Loaded on May 28, 1998 at 3Com Park
baseball almanac flat baseball

baseball almanac fast facts

After the game was over Buck Showalter said, "I know it was a little unorthodox, but I just felt it was the best chance for us to win a baseball game. It was a choice between one of the great players in the game or a very good player. It was a tough call but you go with it and you live with it."

Ron Perranoski, the Giants pitching coach said, "Babe Ruth is the only one I've ever heard them do that to, but that was a little before my time."

Do you know if Perranoski is correct? There have been only a handful of instances where a player was walked with the bases loaded. Check our record book and read about the other players who were shown the ultimate respect.