Barry Bonds powers Northern California to 11-6 victory in I-5 Series Game 1
Barry Bonds hit two home runs and had three RBIs as Northern California took advantage of Southern California pitching to cruise to an 11-6 victory in Game 1 of the best-of-seven I-5 series, run through the APBA game engine.
Bonds and Joe Morgan homered off Dodgers great Don Drysdale in a five-run first inning, and Bonds homered again in a six-run third as the North took an 11-0 lead after three innings at San Francisco's Seals Stadium.
The 34-man rosters were chosen by fans via latimes.com/sports and sfchronicle.com/sports. More than 100,000 votes were cast. The lineups for Game 1 were chosen by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Giants manager Gabe Kapler. The NorCal team was managed by Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle and the SoCal team by Houston Mitchell of The Times.
Drysdale faced seven batters in the first inning, giving up three hits (a double and two homers), three walks and five earned runs. The only batter he retired was Joe DiMaggio.
Gerrit Cole was torched for five runs in the third. NorCal loaded the bases with none out but it looked like Cole escaped trouble when he got Ken Caminiti to ground into a run-scoring double play. However, Troy Tulowitzki singled in Willie Stargell, stole second and scored on Ernie Lombardi's single. Rickey Henderson homered to make it 10-0 and, with Bob Lemon on the mound, Bonds added a solo shot to put the game well out of reach.
SoCal's runs all came on homers: a solo shot by Jackie Robinson, a two-run pinch-hit homer by Robin Yount and a three-run homer by Duke Snider.
Game 2 will be played Thursday at Candlestick Park, and the Series moves to Southern California for Games 3 (Dodger Stadium), 4 (Angel Stadium) and, if necessary, 5 (Petco Park).
Randy Johnson pitched eight innings to get the win.
"It's only one game," Mitchell said after the loss. "Our backs aren't against the wall yet." Then Mitchell ran out of cliches and left to prepare for Game 2.
