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Bonds homers; Aurilia delivers key hit

Apr 19, 2007 - 7:34 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Barry Bonds got closer to the Babe. The San Francisco Giants got a rare taste of victory at home.

Bonds hit career homer No. 738 and Rich Aurilia singled in the game-winner in the 12th inning as the last-place Giants came back from a three-run deficit topped the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-5.

Jonathan Sanchez (1-0) worked out of a jam in the top half of the frame and logged three scoreless innings for San Francisco, which had dropped five of its first six home contests.

"We won the game," Bonds said. "We pitched well, the bullpen pitched well. Richie got a clutch hit. There you go. Good bye."

Bonds, who walked and scored in the second inning, homered on a 2-2 pitch from Ryan Franklin with two outs in the bottom of the eighth to forge a 5-5 tie and move within 17 of Hank Aaron's all-time home run record.

"I mean any other hitter, you can't put more pressure just because it's Barry up there," Bonds said. "I made a mistake and he did what he's supposed to with it. He's got 738 homers for a reason. He's a great hitter and he just capitalized on my mistake."

"They battled back after getting down," San Francisco coach Bruce Bochy said. "Scratch away and come back to tie it. Barry saved us there with the home run to tie it. It is a game that we can build on."

In the top of the 12th, Albert Pujols singled, moved to second on a sacrifice and advanced to third on a sacrifice. After Scott Spiezio drew a walk, Sanchez struck out fellow lefthander Adam Kennedy for the second out. Sanchez got two quick strikes on Yadier Molina before Pujols attempted to steal home but was tagged out.

"I just went out there and threw strikes," Sanchez said. "In the 10th inning I said, 'I've just got to get everybody out,' so I just went out there and threw strikes."

Pujols seemed to have a chance to pull off the straight steal, but he stopped two-thirds of the way down the baseline. Catcher Bengie Molina dropped the pitch and Pujols continued home but Molina scooped the ball and tagged out Pujols.

"I didn't see him. I saw Bengie got up," Sanchez said. "I heard the people start screaming and stuff so I looked up and he was almost to the plate. I threw the ball and we got him."

"I think the plan was for Spiezio to take off first so Sanchez might throw to me or step off," Aurilia said. "I saw Pujols first instead of Spiezio. It surprised me that they did that, but Tony does a lot of things over there out of the ordinary."

Randy Winn dribbled a grounder up the middle in the bottom half off Josh Hancock (0-1) and moved to second on a sacrifice. After a four-pitch walk to Omar Vizquel, Todd Linden struck out for the fourth time. However, Aurilia jumped on a 1-1 offering from his former Cincinnati teammate and lofted the ball into left-center field, easily plating Winn.

"I saw him a lot last year when he was with St. Louis, and I think that helped me over a couple of my teammates," Aurilia said. "I was just waiting for him to get something up in the zone and try and get it over the infield, and I was lucky enough that they were shaded the other way a little bit. It was a fastball up and in."

Pujols hit a two-run homer - his fourth of the season - in a four-run second inning off Matt Morris as the Cards took a 4-1 lead.

Morris yielded five runs - one earned - and six hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out five.