CHICAGO, OCT. 4 -- Don Zimmer and his risky managerial moves have been praised in this city and called a primary reason why the Chicago Cubs are in this National League Championship Series. But he made one tonight and Will Clark and the San Francisco Giants made him pay. Zimmer ordered up a bases-loaded situation for Clark, occasionally dubbed "The Natural," in the fourth inning and he hit a grand slam onto Sheffield Avenue, helping propel the Giants to an 11-3 victory and a one-game-to-nothing lead in the best-of-seven playoff for a slot in the World Series. Clark should have pointed. Clark and his slugging teammate, Kevin Mitchell, said coming into this series they didn't like to hit in Wrigley, despite its inviting walls and friendly breezes. By the time it was over, Clark had set an NLCS record with six runs batted in and tied another with four hits (including two home runs) in four official at-bats. The grand slam turned a 4-3 game into an 8-3 rout. And Mitchell, the major leagues' leading home run hitter in the regular season with 47, hit a line drive in the eighth that nearly reached the buildings across Waveland Avenue to make it 11-3. San Francisco's Nos. 3, 4 and 5 hitters -- Clark, Mitchell and Matt Williams -- drove in all the Giants' runs. Chicago ace Greg Maddux (19-12) allowed the first eight runs and took the loss, while Scott Garrelts (14-5), a true-blue Cubs fan in his youth, allowed eight hits in seven innings to earn the victory. There was one question Zimmer had to answer over and over again: Why intentionally walk Brett Butler to load the bases in the fourth with only one out and Clark due up one batter later? It looked as if Zimmer had two chances to avoid having Maddux pitch to Clark, who had homered the previous inning. The first was for Maddux to get Robby Thompson to hit into an inning-ending double play after the walk to Butler. But Thompson popped out. The second was to play the percentages and bring in left-hander Paul Assenmacher to face left-side-swinging Clark. But Zimmer didn't see it that way. After Thompson made the second out, Zimmer went to the mound to make sure Maddux, 23 years old, and rookie catcher Rick Wrona knew how to pitch Clark. "Greg gave me all the right answers," Zimmer said. "The result was just wrong. He didn't get the pitch where he wanted. "Look, when we walked Butler, I knew then that if we got Robby Thompson out I was going to let my best pitcher {37-20, 3.07 ERA over the last two seasons} pitch to Will Clark. I don't think that was any gamble, letting my 19-game winner pitch with two out." Gamble or not, few balls have been hit harder than the one Clark shot out over the right field fence. He said he had noticed that Maddux was starting all left-handed hitters with fastballs on the inside part of the plate to try to make sure he got ahead in the count. "So I went up there looking for something, and I got it," Clark said. He seemed to have all his weight behind the swing, which was as sweet as rock candy. "When you hit it that good," he said, "you don't feel it. You don't hear it. You just look up and see it." Zimmer concurred. "The wind could have been blowing in, I don't care how many miles per hour, and it wouldn't have made any difference," he said. "The two home runs they hit tonight -- Clark's second and Mitchell's -- no wind in the world's going to hold those two." Mitchell shouldn't have had a chance to hit his, but Chicago first baseman Mark Grace had failed to catch a pop foul six feet or so away from the line, giving Mitchell a second chance. "I don't know if I've ever seen a line drive hit that hard," Clark said. Even after the game Clark said he has bad feelings about hitting in Wrigley. "Maybe because I always play in the day here, when the fans and the pitcher seem right on top of you," he said. "I just have problems here." But not as many as he gave the Cubs, who face a critical game Thursday night before heading to San Francisco for three. Clark's RBI double in the first started the scoring. And after Mitchell's single to center, Williams doubled to right, scoring two more runs to make it 3-0. The Cubs, who seemed to have made an art form of coming from behind to win, countered in the bottom of the first with two runs on Grace's homer with two out. Clark's first home run -- on a 3-2 pitch at the knees -- gave the Giants a bit of breathing room at 4-2 in the third. But Ryne Sandberg countered with a homer in the bottom of the inning for 4-3. Zimmer knew he was in trouble when Maddux started the fourth by giving up singles to Pat Sheridan and Jose Uribe, the Giants' eighth- and ninth-place hitters. "He just didn't pitch like the Greg Maddux we know," Zimmer said. "He had a bad game." When Maddux walked dejectedly into the clubhouse after the fourth, Zimmer followed him in. "I told him he'd been too good a pitcher for us the last two years to let this bother him," Zimmer recounted. The Giants' Garrelts stayed around to pitch seven innings and didn't give up another run. Jeff Brantley and Atlee Hammaker finished up, and didn't need Mitchell's home run. The loss left the Cubs, not surprisingly, talking about how many times they rebounded from losses during the regular season and how they would try to do so again, sending Mike Bielecki (18-7) against the Giants' Rick Reuschel (17-8) Thursday night. "It's best four of seven; we've got six to go," Zimmer said. But can he get much more from Grace, whose three hits tonight made him 10 for 13 off Garrelts, or from Sandberg, who also had three hits? Cubs outfielder-pinch hitter Lloyd McClendon walked through the Chicago dressing room trying to lighten the mood. "What happened? Did somebody die? This place is like a funeral," he said. The Giants promised they won't get overconfident based on this one victory. "The '87 club {which won the NL West but lost to the Cardinals} was cocky," Clark said. "But this team has a more quiet confidence." "Nothing is ever easy in this park," Mitchell said. "You have to keep getting runs and runs. The Cubs have come back before, so we knew we couldn't let up."