Bonds Is So Close to Mark

SAN FRANCISCO —  Judging by the sound of ball hitting bat, Chuck McElroy didn’t bother to turn around to watch Barry Bonds’ 69th home run ball clear the right-field wall Saturday at Pacific Bell Park. If that ball were any more gone, it would have needed to file a flight pattern, and McElroy knew it.

But that’s the kind of season it has been for Bonds--69 home runs, 132 runs batted in, a .321 batting average, the best slugging percentage since Babe Ruth. So the San Diego Padre reliever had to be impressed.

“Man, those are PlayStation numbers,” he said.

Bonds moved to within one home run of Mark McGwire’s record when he homered off McElroy in the sixth inning of the San Francisco Giants’ 3-1 victory, played before the team’s 42nd consecutive sellout crowd. The Giants also remained two games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West race.

McElroy threw a 2-and-1 fastball to Bonds that was supposed to be outside, but wasn’t.

“It came back,” McElroy said.

It didn’t stay around long, though, and left the park in a hurry. This is also what a surprisingly large number of the 41,383 fans did after Bonds bounced out leading off the eighth.

Meanwhile, the Padres were not as happy about being used as props in a Bonds performance for the second game in a row.

Bruce Bochy, the Padres’ manager, believed he was doing the right thing by bringing in McElroy, a left-hander, to face Bonds with the score tied, 1-1. After all, Bonds was batting only .063 against McElroy, so Bochy figured it was at least a decent matchup.

Bochy soon became less convinced.

“I don’t know if there is a good matchup,” he said.

He has a point. You bring in a left-hander to face the left-handed hitting Bonds, he’s the pitcher on your staff with the most success against him, the pitcher makes one mistake and Bonds smacks another home run.

Maybe the correct way to pitch Bonds is how Padre starter Brett Jodie did it in the first inning when he walked Bonds on four pitches, the last one bouncing about five feet in front of the plate.

“We tried to pitch him under the plate the first time up,” Bochy said. “We’re throwing everything at him we can think of.”

Jeff Kent also homered for the Giants, who won for the fifth time in sixth games, this time behind right-hander Russ Ortiz (16-9).

The Padres had only four hits after the first inning, when they scored their only run. Felix Rodriguez and Robb Nen finished up for Ortiz, who went seven innings.

But the day once again belonged to Bonds and no one would argue with that, certainly not Bochy.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” the Padre manager said. “It’s the best power year ever. He still has time to break the record, then you’ve got his slugging percentage, runs batted in ... It’s a phenomenal year.

“It’s not that easy to hit home runs. It’s really not. It looks like he’s hitting in a Little League park right now. He’s killed us.

“He’s just a wrecking crew. There’s no way to get him out. . ... He’s not missing anything. When he gets the ball in the air, it just keeps going.”

McElroy, who faced only four batters and took the loss, did not keep going after the game, but held court in front of his locker as long as anybody wanted to talk. It was also clear that McElroy wanted to talk. He said he always goes after Bonds, challenging him with fastballs, and he’s not going to change now.

One of the few who feel close to Bonds, McElroy says the slugger is destined to break McGwire’s record.

“He’s a man on a mission,” McElroy said. ‘You can see it in his eyes. He’s hungry. He’s going for the record and he’s trying to get his team into the postseason. You know he’s pumped.”

Bochy said he expects Bonds to break McGwire’s record, but the timing is important, he says.

“I just hope it’s not against us tomorrow.”