SAN FRANCISCO - He had struck out the previous five batters. When Josh Beckett went 0-2 on Rich Aurilia to start the fourth inning Tuesday, the largest crowd in Pacific Bell Park history couldn't push their orange rally rags any deeper into their pockets.
They didn't remain hidden long.
As Beckett began misfiring, going from 0-2 to 3-2 and ultimately ball four, the 43,704 fans correctly anticipated the beginning of a pivotal sequence. Rally rags rotating at maximum revolutions, they watched the Giants score the only run they'd need on their way to a 2-0 victory.
Behind Cy Young candidate Jason Schmidt's complete-game, three-hit shutout, the Giants took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five National League Division Series. The first playoff series-opening loss in Marlins history isn't cause to sound the death knell, but history has proved this afternoon's Game 2 is all but a must-win.
Since the wild card was instituted in 1995, the team winning the first game has advanced all but nine times in 32 series. In the National League, only the 1999 Braves and 2000 Mets lost the division series opener and reached the League Championship Series.
"You try to get one (on the road)," center fielder Juan Pierre said. "It doesn't matter which one you win. It's definitely a big game for us to get (Wednesday)."
The Marlins can take solace in that no team would likely have gotten to Schmidt on Tuesday. He became the eighth pitcher in Giants history to throw a complete game shutout in the postseason, the first since Dave Dravecky in the 1987 NLCS.
Schmidt retired the final 14 batters he faced and did not allow a base runner through the last four innings. One of the Marlins three hits did not leave the infield.
Pierre and Miguel Cabrera were the only Marlins who came up to hit with runners in scoring position. Both did so with two outs, and both flied out to right.
"We haven't seen anyone with any better stuff than that," first baseman Derrek Lee said. "Throwing 94-95 with sink on the corners. Good slider and changeup. I think 80 percent of his pitches were strikes."
Actually, it was 74 percent.
That was plenty to stifle the Marlins, who failed to make good on another commanding effort from Josh Beckett. Since the All-Star break, the Marlins have scored two or fewer runs in five Beckett starts.
Though he didn't dominate the Giants, Beckett held them to two hits in seven innings. The lone run he gave up resulted from bad pitch selection and bad luck.
After Aurilia worked the count back to 3-2 in the fourth, Beckett threw him a curve that was nowhere near the strike zone, bring up Barry Bonds.
"If I could change one pitch, that would be it," Beckett said. "It was a really dumb pitch, a 48-foot curveball."
Added manager Jack McKeon: "That's probably the key hitter of the game. I imagine I know what's going through his head. He probably wanted to strike him out. Charlie Finley used to tell me if you want to be a hog you wind up eating crap. You just can't be a hog. He could have easily got out of that."
Beckett pitched to Bonds, who went 0 for 1 with three walks, and got him to 2-2 before missing with a fastball up and one down. With runners on first and second, Edgardo Alfonzo dropped a bunt down the third-base line.
The charging Miguel Cabrera fielded the ball and made an off-balance throw that got past Lee and allowed the game's initial run to score. The error was Cabrera's second in 35 games at third.
"I didn't have much chance to stop and throw," Cabrera said. "The ball arrived with the runner. Errors are part of the game. You don't try to make them. We weren't lucky enough to get that out."
Added Lee: "The runner was just in the right spot. If the runner is a step slow it's an out."
McKeon also supported his 20-year-old third baseman. He watched Beckett load the bases on the fourth of his five walks, then strike out Jose Cruz Jr. and Schmidt to keep the deficit at one after four.
The Giants did not score again until the eighth, when the Marlins intentionally walked Bonds with two outs and no one on. He broke for second on a Chad Fox throw to first, but the ball came in low and Lee was unable to make a play.
Alfonzo followed with a deep fly to center that Pierre couldn't track down for an RBI-double.
"If we get a win (Wednesday), that's a great trip out here," Lee said. "That's our focus."
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