678

[smazza]

bonds and giants do it again

and it is so much fun to see it in person

[smazza]

he is simply the best

[smazza]

Barry Bonds might walk 250 times this season, and when he does swing the bat he usually validates every manager's decision to wiggle four fingers in the air at the sight of him.

Bonds saw 23 pitches in this series against the Dodgers, 19 balls and four strikes, before he deigned to put one in play. Well, he really put it out of play, mauling a pitch from the decrepit shadow of the once-impenetrable Hideo Nomo for a three-run homer.

Bonds' 20th of the season, No. 678 overall, came in the third inning Wednesday night and tilted the game well into the Giants' favor. They won 7-1 behind another dominating effort from Brett Tomko. He fell two outs shy of his first shutout in 170 starts but still served his team well for 8 1/3 innings before Milton Bradley's RBI single ended his night.

Tomko has been a different pitcher in two starts since he came off the disabled list. He has won consecutive decisions for the first time as a Giant, both against the Dodgers, allowing two runs in 141/3 innings.

The Giants completed June with an 18-10 record and a 2 1/2-game lead the National League West. They also won 13 of their final 16 games in the month, including four of five against the Dodgers. They hope to charge right into July by winning tonight's game against Los Angeles behind Jason Schmidt, who guns for his 11th straight victory.

For all the grief Giants management took for not acquiring a "big bat" to complement Bonds, they have scored 393 runs, second only to St. Louis' 406 in the NL. The Giants scored 184 of those runs in June, when they led the league with a .285 average.

Before the game, Bonds jostled the early-arriving fans out of their Dodger Dog-induced stupor when he hit a batting practice pitch out of the stadium, the ball clanking off the metal roof of the right-field pavilion before bouncing into the parking lot. Given how the Dodgers were pitching him, that seemed like it might be his only chance to do something big.

He walked all four times he "batted" on Tuesday night, then was hit by Nomo his first time up Wednesday. In the third, though, walking Bonds seemed a perilous proposition with runners on first and second and one out. Ray Durham singled for his second hit -- he opened the game with a homer -- and J.T. Snow walked.

After Marquis Grissom lined out to right, Bonds mashed Nomo's first pitch over the fence just left of straightaway center. Bonds stood at the plate a good while admiring his fourth career homer against Nomo, which gave the Giants a 4-0 lead.

Grissom hit the Giants' third homer in the fifth, a hellacious blast into the home bullpen in left field. Nomo then walked Bonds and allowed a one-out single to Deivi Cruz. A.J. Pierzynski greeted new pitcher Wilson Alvarez with a two-run double down the left-field line, putting the game well out of reach at 7-0. Pierzynski had his first four-hit game of 2004, raising his average to .296.

Tomko made the most of this offensive bonanza. He pitched even better than he did on Thursday, when he came off the DL and beat the Dodgers in San Francisco with six innings of one-run ball. The key, he said, was throwing more fastballs.

"That's how I should pitch all the time," Tomko said. "I get beat too much on my offspeed pitches. I've just got to come out there and trust my stuff and hope it comes through."

[___ Eats It]

Hasn't it been like a year since 677?   ;D

My wife will be happy.  I traded her Bonds for Kenny Rogers and Mark Mulder.  I needed some pitching and some points, since walks are worthless in my league.

[Velcro]

simply the best (at cheating)

[GarySJ]

My wife will be happy.  I traded her Bonds for Kenny Rogers and Mark Mulder.

You got robbed. I'd have demanded no less than Travis Tritt and Dana Scully.

[Velcro]

nice!  ;D

[bulls96go]

nice

[___ Eats It]

You got robbed. I'd have demanded no less than Travis Tritt and Dana Scully.

HAH!

You clever bastard, you!   ;D  That was pretty funny.

[smazza]

bonds tie alltime walk record while

bosox go down again 10-4