As Bonds Rests, Snow Paves Way for Giants

Barry Bonds took most of the day off, so J.T. Snow replaced him in every way. He drove in all the Giants’ runs, got a clutch hit from the cleanup spot -- and left the park without a word.

Snow had four runs batted in and hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the eighth inning, keeping the Giants atop the NL wild-card race with a 4-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday at San Francisco.

Snow also had a run-scoring single and a sacrifice fly to propel the Giants to their seventh win in eight games.

Two days after slugging his 700th homer, Bonds rested. He appeared only to draw his major league-record 106th intentional walk as a pinch-hitter in the eighth, then left for a pinch-runner with the bases loaded. Snow followed with a two-run double to left against Akinori Otsuka.

The Giants took two of three from San Diego but couldn’t gain ground on the division-leading Dodgers, who rallied to beat Colorado and maintain their 2 1/2 -game advantage. San Francisco stayed a half-game ahead of Chicago for the wild card.

Houston 1, Milwaukee 0 -- Roger Clemens won his sixth start in a row and got his 328th victory, leading the Astros over the Brewers to complete a three-game sweep at Houston.

Clemens (18-4) retired his final 13 batters and moved into sole possession of 10th place on the career wins list, one ahead of John Clarkson and one behind Steve Carlton. The 42-year-old right-hander gave up two hits, walked two and struck out 10.

Florida 3, Atlanta 0 -- Ismael Valdez (13-8) gave up two hits in six innings, Jeff Conine drove in all three runs and the Marlins averted a series sweep at Miami.

Armando Benitez threw a perfect ninth for his 43rd save, matching a career high.

Chicago 5, Cincinnati 1 -- Moises Alou hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the ninth inning at Cincinnati to help the Cubs to their sixth win in seven games.

Philadelphia 7, Montreal 2 -- Kevin Millwood pitched two innings in his return from the disabled list to help the Phillies at Philadelphia.

Mike Liberthal homered for the Phillies.

Arizona 3, St. Louis 2 -- In his first outing at Busch Stadium since 2001, Rick Ankiel pitched two hitless innings with four strikeouts in the Cardinals’ loss to the Diamondbacks.

Arizona’s Michael Gosling won his first big league decision.

Pittsburgh 1-6, New York 0-1 -- Jason Bay hit a two-run homer to set a team rookie record with 24 home runs, and Dave Williams (2-1) pitched six shutout innings to help the Pirates complete a doubleheader sweep at Pittsburgh.