Jason Schmidt fires a two-hitter and retires the final 14 Florida batters.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Jason Schmidt aced another test.

Schmidt pitched the San Francisco Giants to their first playoff shutout in 16 years, throwing a three-hitter for a 2-0 victory over the Florida Marlins in Game 1 Tuesday.

Schmidt outdueled Josh Beckett while Barry Bonds and the Giants took advantage of a costly error by Florida fill-in third baseman Miguel Cabrera to score the go-ahead run.

“I felt like I learned a lot more in the last two games of the World Series than I did my whole career,” Schmidt said. “I couldn’t wait to get back to the postseason.”

At 68, Felipe Alou wound up a winner while managing his first postseason game and 72-year-old Jack McKeon lost in his playoff debut.

Bonds barely had two feet in the batter’s box when catcher Ivan Rodriguez’s glove shot out to signal an intentional walk, showing just how serious the Marlins were about not getting beat by baseball’s best slugger.

Instead, the Marlins beat themselves with one bad throw.

Bonds wound up 0-for-1 with three walks. Chad Fox intentionally walked Bonds with nobody on base in the eighth, and he came around to score on Edgardo Alfonzo’s double.

Bonds proved last postseason that he could carry his team – the five-time MVP hit .356 with eight homers, 16 RBIs and 27 walks as the Giants reached the World Series for the first time since 1989 – but the Marlins don’t plan to let that happen if they can help it.

When he was intentionally walked in the first, the crowd of 43,704 began booing lustily.

On a day the teams combined for only six hits, the Giants scored their first run on a misplay.

Cabrera, starting in place of injured All-Star Mike Lowell, charged in on Alfonzo’s fourth-inning bunt and made a wild throw to first. By the time the ball had stopped it was in the bullpen dirt and Rich Aurilia was headed for home.

Alou had said the key for Schmidt was to keep his pitch count down – and that happened. The lanky right-hander with the league’s lowest ERA worked ahead in the count and was at 79 pitches through six.

After Alex Gonzalez reached on an error in the fifth, Schmidt retired the final 14 batters. Schmidt walked none and struck out five.

Schmidt pitched the first postseason shutout for the Giants since Dave Dravecky beat St. Louis in Game 2 of the 1987 NL championship series.

Beckett was almost as impressive in his playoff debut. He gave up two hits in seven innings, striking out nine and walking five.

At 23, Beckett is seven years younger than Schmidt, but he didn’t pitch like it.

Beckett worked out of a first-inning jam after Ray Durham hit a leadoff double.

Durham went to third on J.T. Snow’s flyout and after Bonds was walked with two outs, Alfonzo flied out.

Beckett retired seven consecutive batters, including five straight strikeouts

before walking Aurilia in the fourth.

Before Bonds’ fourth-inning at-bat, Beckett huddled on the mound with Rodriguez and pitching coach Wayne Rosenthal – certainly discussing how to approach him this time around.

Beckett challenged Bonds all right.

Here’s how it went: A 97 mph fastball, strike one. Outside, ball one. Low and in, ball two. Foul, strike two. High, ball three. Low, ball four. And Bonds was aboard again while McKeon barked about plate umpire John Hirschbeck’s strike zone.

Marlins center fielder Juan Pierre insisted San Francisco’s 5-1 showing against Florida this season wasn’t a true indication of the talent separation between these two clubs – the Giants reached the World Series last season and the Marlins are in the playoffs for the first time since winning the World Series in 1997, and they swept San Francisco in the first round to get there.

Notes: Amputee football player Neil Parry of San Jose State threw out the first pitch. … Beckett’s nine strikeouts set a franchise division record.

AP-ES-09-30-03 1931EDT