Bonds Stays Hot, Belts No. 758

Bonds had the homer and two walks against Morris, added a seventh-inning sacrifice fly off reliever John Grabow and had three RBIs in the game.

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SAN FRANCISCO - For Barry Bonds, the good times just seem to keep rolling.

The Giants slugger extended his all-time home run lead in the third inning Friday night at AT&T Park with a two-run, two-out blast against old friend Matt Morris, now with the Pirates.

No. 758 nestled onto the Arcade above the 24-foot-high red-brick wall in right field.

It was Bonds' 24th homer of the season and fourth in his last five starts beginning with No. 755, which tied Hank Aaron on the all-time Major League homer list this past Saturday night in San Diego.

"I'm going to wear Matt Morris out," Bonds said jovially before a game the Giants lost, 8-7, to the Pirates.

Bonds had the homer and two walks against Morris, added a seventh-inning sacrifice fly off reliever John Grabow and had three RBIs in the game.

All that gives him 56 RBIs on the season and 1,986 for his career, just 14 shy of 2,000. He will be only the third player in the modern era to reach that milestone, joining Aaron and Babe Ruth.

The ball that Bonds hit off the electronic message board in left field at PETCO Park to open the second inning Saturday night off right-hander Clay Hensley and retrieved by Adam Hughes, a 33-year-old plumber from La Jolla, will be put up for auction.

The online auction, held in conjunction with Sotheby's auction house, runs from Aug. 28 to Sept. 14, and is expected to generate about $200,000 for the ball, said David Kohler, president of SCP Auctions.

Bonds ultimately broke the record here during the fifth inning Tuesday night and added No. 757 in the first inning Wednesday night, both shots coming against the Nationals.

Bonds didn't start afternoon games this week on Sunday in San Diego -- when he didn't make an appearance -- and Thursday at home when he was relegated to a pinch-hit popout in the eighth inning.

He was lifted Friday night after his plate appearance in the seventh inning and will not start Saturday afternoon against the Bucs, the team he came up with in 1986 and with whom he played his first seven seasons, Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Bonds hasn't played a full nine-inning game since July 29 and the recent tactic seems to have worked. After a .186 month of July with four homers and 11 RBIs, Bonds is hitting at a .350 clip (7-for-20) with four homers and seven RBIs during the first 10 days of August.

"I think it's helped to get him off his legs early," Bochy said about pulling Bonds out of games in the seventh or eighth innings. "It's showing with his play. The fresher we keep him, the better player we're going to get."

Morris, who was swapped by the Giants to the Pirates on July 29, became the 448th pitcher to give up at least one homer to Bonds during the course of his 22-year career.

With a runner on third and two out, Morris could've taken the safe route and simply given Bonds a free pass to first base. But Bonds was 2-for-14 with one RBI vs. Morris coming into that at-bat.

And so the right-handed pitcher and Pirates manager Jim Tracy elected to take their chances. After all, Bonds has only been intentionally walked six times since July 1.

But when Morris hung a full-count curveball, he instantly regretted the move.

"It was my own decision," Morris said. "We didn't talk about it much before the game. I let the situation dictate itself. With the base open, if I had had a little bit more intelligence, to walk him would've been a better move. But in that situation I wanted to get him out and thought I could get him out. And it was the wrong move. The location of the pitch wasn't where I wanted it."

Morris was traded two days after Bonds hit No. 754 on a Friday night against the Marlins. And though he had said at the time that he was tired of the circus surrounding the chase, Morris said Friday night that he regretted missing the events of the past week.

"To have been here all that time and just miss it ... I wish I could've been here for all that," said Morris, who was in his first year with the Giants in 2006 when Bonds hit his 715th homer on May 28 of that year to pass Ruth into second place. "I tip my hat to him. He's the best hitter I've ever worked with or played with. I learned a lot from him. I'm proud I was a teammate of his."

Story by: Barry M. Bloom

Courtesy: MLB.com

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