May 1, 2001: Reigning NL MVP Jeff Kent drives in seven runs in first appearance at PNC Park

Admittedly impatient at the plate, reigning National League Most Valuable Player Jeff Kent struggled to keep his average over .200 in the first month of the 2001 season. He regained form as April turned to May, notably with a big game in his first visit to Pittsburgh’s newly opened PNC Park. Kent tied his career high by driving in seven runs in the San Francisco Giants’ 11-6 win over the Pirates on May 1.

A November 1996 trade delivered Kent from his half-decade journey through the Toronto Blue Jays’, New York Mets’, and Cleveland Indians’ infields into a long-term role as San Francisco’s slugging second baseman.1 In 2000, Kent’s fourth season with the Giants, he hit .334 with 33 homers and 125 RBIs and won NL MVP honors with 22 of 32 first-place votes.2

The 33-year-old Kent’s MVP defense in 2001 initially seemed on track, as he punctuated the Giants’ season-opening sweep of the San Diego Padres with a three-run homer off Bobby Jones on April 5. Two more home runs and five RBIs followed five days later in San Diego.

But when Kent went 1-for-5 in a loss to the Cincinnati Reds on April 25—a night after getting ejected for arguing with umpire Tim Timmons3—he was batting just .205 and had gone nearly two weeks without a home run. He had walked only once in his past 14 games.

“I was definitely more impatient this year than I’ve ever been, and that was totally my fault,” Kent acknowledged later in the season.4

Kent’s turnaround began on April 26 with a three-hit, two-double game against the Reds that even included a walk. By the time the Giants arrived in Pittsburgh, nearly two years to the day after Kent’s cycle at the Pirates’ former home, Three Rivers Stadium, his average had increased to .250. San Francisco was fourth in the NL West Division at 12-12, 2½ games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers.

PNC Park’s right-field layout put the Allegheny River within range of a left-handed power swing, much as the Giants’ year-old Pacific Bell Park had done with the San Francisco Bay. During batting practice before the series opener, baseball’s leading lefty power bat, Giants left fielder Barry Bonds, targeted the river, which was 456 feet from home plate at its closest point.5

Bonds, whose 11 home runs were tied for second in the majors behind Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Luis Gonzalez’s 13, hit five balls into the water on the fly and one on a bounce.6

The righty-swinging Kent, by contrast, struggled in batting practice.

“I was disappointed that it wasn’t a hitters’ ballpark,” he recalled after the game.7

Hampered by a rash of injuries to their starting pitchers, the Pirates were last in the NL Central Division at 9-15. Pittsburgh’s attempts to staunch the pitching drain had included signing 33-year-old right-hander Ramón Martínez on April 11.8 A 20-game winner and the NL Cy Young Award runner-up in 1990 as a Dodger,9 Martínez had failed to regain his effectiveness after rotator cuff surgery in 1998. Through three starts with the Pirates, he was 0-1 with a 7.62 ERA. For his 297th career start, Martínez faced his opponents from his big-league debut, nearly 13 years earlier in August 1988.10

Giants lefty Kirk Rueter’s first five outings of 2001 had resulted in a 7.36 ERA, and the Pirates threatened to push it even higher in the bottom of the first. Jason Kendall’s single and walks by Emil Brown and Aramis Ramírez loaded the bases with one out for John Vander Wal, batting .426 and slugging .809 in his last 13 games. But Vander Wal grounded to shortstop Rich Aurilia, who teamed up with Kent and first baseman J.T. Snow for an inning-ending double play.

Martínez began the night with two scoreless innings. Former Pirate Bonds—greeted with a mix of cheers and boos from the crowd of 22,29611—walked on a 3-and-2 pitch with two outs in the first, but Kent flied to left.

After Rueter lined out to open the third, however, Martínez’s fortunes swiftly turned sour.

Marvin Benard, batting .133 and homerless in his first 83 at-bats of 2001, drove a two-ball pitch over the center-field fence for the game’s first run.12 Aurilia walked on five pitches and Bonds on nine to set up Kent with two runners on base.

In 1997 Martínez had hit Kent on the hand with a pitch; Kent had called Martínez an “idiot.”13 At PNC Park, Martínez’s first two deliveries missed the strike zone, but the third was over the plate. Kent pulled it over the first level of bleachers behind the left-field fence.14 His first home run since April 12—a 57-at-bat span—boosted San Francisco’s lead to 4-0.

Two batters later, Benito Santiago took first after a two-out hit-by-pitch, and first-year Pittsburgh manager Lloyd McClendon was removing Martínez from what turned out to be his final big-league appearance.15

Veteran lefty Terry Mulholland retired Armando Ríos to end the inning, and the Pirates hinted at competitiveness in the third. Kendall drew a one-out walk and center fielder Brown’s opposite-field home run into the right-field seats made it a 4-2 game.

But the Giants responded decisively in the fourth against the 38-year-old Mulholland, who had reached the major leagues with San Francisco in 1986. Rookie Pedro Feliz, starting at third with Russ Davis traveling for a family funeral,16 led off with a single, advanced to second on Rueter’s sacrifice, and scored on Benard’s single.

Benard took second on a wild pitch, then stopped at third on Aurilia’s single.17 Bonds received a four-pitch walk, loading the bases for Kent.

Mulholland fell behind 2-and-0, and Kent walloped a line drive to deep center. It sailed over Brown’s head and bounced to the wall.18 All three Giants baserunners scored, and Kent had a double, his second three-run hit in two innings. San Francisco’s lead was 8-2.

Ríos gave the Giants their ninth run in three innings when he led off the fifth by bashing Mulholland’s two-strike pitch over the fence for his third homer of the season.19 In the bottom of the inning, pinch-hitter Craig Wilson, batting for just the fourth time in the majors, answered with a one-out solo shot, his first big-league hit.20

McClendon brought in rookie lefty Joe Beimel for the seventh of what turned out to be 676 big-league appearances over 13 seasons, and Kent continued to add to his tally in the sixth and seventh innings. In the sixth, Kent followed Bonds’s fourth walk of the game with a walk of his own.

Three infield grounders negated that scoring threat, but the Giants resumed their advance in the seventh. Feliz singled and moved to second on Rueter’s bunt single between the mound and first.21 First baseman Vander Wal turned Benard’s grounder into a force at second, but Feliz scored on shortstop Enrique Wilson’s errant relay to first.

Aurilia’s single pushed Benard to second. Beimel stuck out Bonds, but Kent lined a double to left. Benard scored San Francisco’s 11th run, as third base coach Sonny Jackson halted Aurilia at third.22

Kent’s night was done with three extra-base hits and seven RBIs. Giants manager Dusty Baker sent in infielder Ramón Martínez—no relation to Pittsburgh’s starting pitcher23—at second in the bottom of the seventh. Bonds went into the books at four walks and two runs when Edwards Guzmán took over in left.

The Pirates made it superficially closer in the late innings. Enrique Wilson opened the seventh with a double off Rueter and came home on Derek Bell’s fly out and Pat Meares’ RBI groundout.

Against Aaron Fultz in the eighth, Kendall’s double and walks to Giles and Brown loaded the bases with no outs. One out later, Vander Wal attained the run-scoring hit that had eluded him in the first inning, pulling a two-run double inside first base to cut San Francisco’s lead to 11-6.24

But Félix Rodríguez set down Wilson and Bell to extinguish the rally. Cheered on by a group of 30 family and friends wearing T-shirts with his name and number, rookie Chad Zerbe—who had lived near Pittsburgh as a child—closed out the Pirates in the ninth.25

Kent’s seven RBIs matched his total in a 1998 game against the Reds.26 His teammates’ offensive prowess, primarily Bonds’ four walks, may have mitigated his impatience.

“They didn’t want to pitch to Barry, and I kept coming up with runners on base,” Kent said. “I was in a situation where they had to throw strikes to me.”27

Kent went 1-for-9 over the next two games, which the Giants and Pirates split. In 28 career games at PNC Park, he hit just .189 with  seven home runs and 19 RBIs. Kent overcame his poor April in 2001, finishing with a .298 average, 22 home runs, and 106 RBIs and earning his third of five career All-Star selections and second of four Silver Slugger Awards.28 He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2026.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Keith Thursby.

Photo credit: Jeff Kent, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT200105010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2001/B05010PIT2001.htm

Notes

1 Kent was one of four Indians included in a six-player deal that brought third baseman Matt Williams to Cleveland.

2 Kent’s 392 points topped teammate Barry Bonds’ 279 points and six first-place votes.

3 Henry Schulman, “Reds Upend Giants as Ump Upsets Kent,” San Francisco Chronicle, April 25, 2001: D1.

4 Greg Beacham, Associated Press, “Kent Looking Super Again: In Bonds’ Shadow, Giants 2B Regains His MVP Form,” Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 27, 2001: D1.

5 Daniel Brown, “Bonds Gets Chance to Make Splash in Batting Practice,” San Jose Mercury-News, May 2, 2001: 5D.

6 Brown, “Bonds Gets Chance to Make Splash in Batting Practice.” Lance Berkman of the Houston Astros had become the first player to hit a home run into the river on a bounce on April 18. Associated Press, “Vander Wal Lifts Bucs; Berkman’s HR Bounces into River,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, April 19, 2001: 14. The first player to homer into the river on the fly was the Astros’ Daryle Ward in 2002. Paul Meyer, “Slam Dunk: Ward Hits First HR On Fly into Allegheny River as Wells’ Luck Runs Dry in Bid for 10th Victory,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 7, 2002: D-1.

7 Daniel Brown, “Kent’s 7 RBIs Power Giants Past Pirates,” San Jose Mercury-News, May 2, 2001: 1D. PNC Park was consistently a better hitters’ park for left-handers than right-handers. As of May 2026, for example, Pittsburgh’s left-handed batters had an all-time .750 OPS at PNC Park, while right-handed batting Pirates had a .703 OPS.

8 Paul Meyer, “Martinez, Pirates Finally Seal Deal: Pitcher Gets 1-Year Contract, Will Pitch vs. Cubs on Saturday,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 12, 2001: D-3. Kris Benson, Francisco Córdova, and Jason Schmidt, all members of Pittsburgh’s starting rotation in 2000, began the season on the disabled list. Veteran free agent signing Terry Mulholland started on April 4, injured his knee, and went on the 15-day disabled list, leading to Martínez’s signing. Robert Dvorchak, “Benson to Miss Season’s Start: Pitcher Has Strained Ligament in Elbow,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 24, 2001: B-1; Robert Dvorchak, “Young Homers in 10th: Mulholland Injured in Pirates’ 6-5 Win,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 5, 2001: D-6.

9 The Pirates’ Doug Drabek won the NL Cy Young Award in 1990.

10 In his debut game with the Dodgers, Martínez took a 1-0 lead into the eighth inning but was removed with two on and two outs. Reliever Jesse Orosco allowed a game-tying single to San Francisco’s Will Clark, and Martínez received a no-decision in the Dodgers’ 11-inning win.

11 Paul Meyer, “Give-and-Take: Bonds Gets Some Jeers, But Many Cheer Former Pirate,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 2, 2001: C-3.

12 Benard finished with 15 home runs in 2001, his third consecutive season with double-digit homers.

13 Henry Schulman, “Pirates’ Martinez Calls It Quits,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 3, 2001: C6.

14 ESPN SportsCenter, “2001 MLB Highlights May 1,” YouTube video (SW561), 17:58, accessed May 29, 2026, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krsdd6uHYFY. (2:52 of video.)

15 Martínez announced his retirement on the day after the game. Paul Meyer, “Poor Start Forces Martinez to Retire: Pirates Recall Morris; AAA Pitcher Next Move,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 3, 2001: D-1.

16 Davis had arrived in Pittsburgh a few hours before the game after attending his cousin’s funeral in Alabama, and manager Dusty Baker kept him out of the lineup. Davis pinch-hit for Rueter in the eighth inning. Josh Suchon, “Bonds Puts on a Show in Batting Practice,” Oakland Tribune, May 2, 2001: SPORTS-5.

17 Aurilia went on to lead the NL with 206 hits in 2001.

18 ESPN SportsCenter, “2001 MLB Highlights May 1.” (3:04 of video.)

19 At the July trade deadline, the Giants dealt Ríos and pitcher Ryan Vogelsong to the Pirates for pitcher Jason Schmidt and Vander Wal.

20 It was Wilson’s first of seven pinch-hit homers in 2001, tying the National and American League record set by Dave Hanson of the Dodgers in 2000.

21 Robert Dvorchak, “Mayday: Kent’s 7 RBIs Help Giants Rip Pirates,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 2, 2001: C-1.

22 Josh Suchon, “Will This Be S.F.’s Month? Giants’ Bernard on Track in Win vs. Pirates,” Oakland Tribune, May 2, 2001: SPORTS-1.

23 Infielder Ramón E. Martínez never batted against pitcher Ramón Jaime Martínez in the major leagues.

24 Dvorchak, “Mayday.”

25 Suchon, “Will This Be S.F.’s Month?”

26 Ross McKeon, “Soaring on Trade Winds: Giants, Kent Take off in First Game with Carter & Co.,” San Francisco Examiner, July 25, 1998: D-1.

27 Alan Robinson, Associated Press, “Kent Lights up Pittsburgh,” Indiana (Pennsylvania) Gazette, May 2, 2001: 27.

28 Bonds set a major-league record with 73 home runs in 2001 and received his first of four consecutive NL MVP Awards. The Giants were second in the NL West at 90-72. Pittsburgh was last in the NL Central at 62-100.