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Bonds smacks No. 750; Montero's homer leads Diamondbacks over Giants

Jun 30, 2007 - 6:39 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Barry Bonds smashed another home run. But it was a blast by a considerably lesser-known performer that proved to be the decisive blow.

Rookie Miguel Montero snapped a 10th-inning tie with a majestic homer as the Arizona Diamondbacks pulled out an exciting 4-3 victory over Bonds and the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on Friday night.

Five players had multi-hit games for the Diamondbacks, who are 6-4 in their last 10 games.

"It's definitely great and its a big win to come off a hard four days against the Dodgers," Diamondbacks second baseman Orlando Hudson said. "We took one out of four so we come out here against another good team and pull out the first win, especially against a good pitcher like Matt Morris and a great lineup that they have.

"Livan stuck in there as long as he did, kept us in the ballgame and brought in (Tony) Pena and (Jose) Valverde and we ended up getting a big win which is huge for us."

In the eighth inning, Bonds crushed a 3-2 curveball off Diamondbacks starter Livan Hernandez to the seats in right-center for his 750th career homer and 16th of the season.

The blast leaves Bonds five homers shy of Hank Aaron's all-time mark.

"I think everybody in that clubhouse knows - the staff and myself - we know he's going to get a lot of attention reaching this milestone, as he should," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's going to be a big moment in baseball, but right now, we're all embarrassed where we're at, how we're playing. Our focus is trying to get on track here and win some ballgames."

But one inning later, Montero belted a high drive off Giants closer Brad Hennessey (1-3) into the right field seats, leaning back and admiring his towering shot as it landed in the stands.

"I started putting a good swing on the ball," Montero said. "I knew if I put a good swing on the ball, it's going to jump and I don't even try to hit a home run or do too much and it happens."

Hernandez pitched eight innings and was in line for the win, but the home run by Bonds prevented spoiled that. He made one other mistake in the bottom of the sixth, and Ryan Klesko hit it into "McCovey Cove" for his fourth home run of the season - snapping a 1-1 tie.

"I've always had confidence," Hernandez said. "I'm only frustrated because I know I can do better. I felt good on the mound. Before the game, I knew my stuff was good, especially the sinker. I tried to throw the pitch down. It was low but Barry is a great hitter. He went down and lifted it over."

"(Hernandez) was unbelievable tonight," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "He had his best stuff in the sixth and seventh innings. He gave us what we needed."

Tony Pena (3-1) pitched a clean ninth and, after Montero's blast gave the Diamondbacks the lead, Jose Valverde tossed a scoreless ninth for his 26th save, retiring Bonds for the final out of the game.

Giants starter Matt Morris has been the stopper all season and tried to play that role again. He pitched seven solid innings, allowing three runs - one earned - and 10 hits while striking out three and walking two.

"I gave up the last two (runs) but you expect to win with that kind of stuff," Morris said. "And we've been having a lot of trouble doing that the last three games with starters going deep and not giving them much on the board and not being able to win those games are tough.

"It's wasting a lot of great opportunities that we have."

With San Francisco leading, 2-1, in the seventh, Arizona threatened with runners at second and third with two outs.

Morris got Conor Jackson to hit a fly ball to shallow right-center. The fleet-footed Roberts camped under the ball but it went off the heel of his glove and both Stephen Drew and Orlando Hudson scored on the play.

Trailing, 1-0, in the third, Eric Byrnes lined a one-out single to center then stole his 15th base. Stephen Drew hit a bloop double to left which easily scored Byrnes as 42-year-old left fielder Bonds had trouble getting to the ball.

A grounder by Orlando Hudson advanced Drew to third, but Chad Tracy struck out looking to end the inning.

The Giants took a 1-0 lead against their former teammate in the first inning. Roberts singled to right field, and Randy Winn followed with a single to left, putting runners on first and second.

Ray Durham lined out to second but with first and second base occupied, Hernandez pitched to Bonds, who hit a solid single to right scoring Roberts for the game's first run.

For five innings, the Diamondbacks had a runner in scoring position and could not score. In fact, Arizona had a runner at third with less than two outs in the second, third and fourth innings and, each time, Morris pitched out of the jam.