Barry Bonds homered Monday night to spark a comeback victory over the visiting Toronto Blue Jays, and renewed interest in his pursuit of Henry Aaron's record.
Bonds's 747th career home run in the fourth inning rallied the San Francisco Giants past the Blue Jays 4-3 in front of 38,030 fans at AT&T Park.
Barry Bonds hits home run No. 747 in Monday's 4-3 triumph over Toronto.
(Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)
"We needed a shot in the arm and he gave it to us," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
Bonds hammered an 0-1 pitch from Toronto starter Josh Towers into the centre-field seats for just his second homer in a month and 13th this season.
"You know it is just a matter of time," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "He is going to get it against somebody."
Bonds hadn't homered since May 27, covering 33 official at-bats, and even missed two games last week because of shin splints.
"He is not 100 per cent," Bochy said. "I had to sit him down a couple days.
"This game is difficult. When you're not 100 per cent, it makes it that much tougher."
Bonds, who is suspected of using performance-enhancing substances, is eight homers shy of Aaron's major-league record of 755.
But the controversial slugger has struggled to stay healthy and drive the ball with his customary consistency.
"His legs have bothered him," Bochy said.
Ryan Klesko and Omar Vizquel drove in the other runs for the Giants, who halted a three-game losing skid.
San Francisco starter Matt Morris yielded three first-inning runs, but settled down and blanked the Blue Jays the rest of the way.
Morris (7-3) scattered seven hits, struck out four batters and walked one in posting his third complete game of the campaign.
"Great pitching performance, that's it, and we finally came through on offence," Bonds said. "Hopefully, that's some momentum we need to start going forward."
Towers (2-4) was tagged with the loss, surrendering four runs — one unearned — on five hits and one walk with five strikeouts over four innings.
"Every pitch seemed to be up," he said. "Everything was high and up and that's when you get in trouble [because] elevation is a sign of fatigue."
Aaron Hill had two runs batted in for the Blue Jays, while rookie Adam Lind had two hits and the other RBI.
Toronto jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Alex Rios opened the contest with a double and Matt Stairs walked to put runners aboard for Hill, who smacked a two-run double.
Lind delivered a run-scoring single up the middle to make it 3-0.
San Francisco replied with a run in the bottom of the inning as Dave Roberts singled, stole second base, advanced to third on a throwing error and later scored on Klesko's RBI groundout.
It remained 3-1 until Klesko singled in the third to bring up Bonds, who made Towers his 440th victim with a two-run homer to centre.
"Whenever people count that big man out, he always responds," Roberts said. "He felt good tonight.
"Take that for what it's worth. But I took it as he was going to do something special."
Ray Durham doubled and moved to third on Bengie Molina's single and hustled home with the decisive run on Vizquel's sacrifice bunt.
Toronto is 1-6 lifetime versus the Giants, including 0-4 at San Francisco.
Aaron set record 33 years ago
Aaron has owned baseball's most cherished record since Aug. 8, 1974, when he surpassed Babe Ruth's long-standing mark of 714.
But Aaron has refused to advise Bonds, and repeatedly stated that he will not be on hand if and when Bonds breaks the record.
"I don't have any thoughts about Barry," Aaron said recently.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, a close friend of Aaron, has yet to confirm whether he will attend any of the games, either.
Bonds, who owns the single-season high of 73 homers, remains the target of a U.S. federal grand jury investigating whether he committed perjury in 2003, when he reportedly testified that he never knowingly used steroids.
With files from the Canadian Press
