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Bonds blasts No. 740 as Giants tip Diamondbacks

Apr 23, 2007 - 12:59 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Barry Bonds is showing no signs of his age as he races toward history.

The 42-year-old Bonds hit his sixth homer of the season and 740th of his career as the San Francisco Giants completed a three-game sweep and handed the Arizona Diamondbacks their fourth straight loss, 2-1.

The Giants' slugger is now 16 short of passing Hank Aaron for the all-time home run record (755). At his current pace, Bonds should break the record sometime in mid-June.

Bonds' blast, a solo shot to right field in the fourth inning, overshadowed yet another strong performance from youngster Matt Cain (1-1). The 22-year-old righthander pitched a complete game, yielding just three hits and one run.

"That's awesome for him to be able to be swinging it like he's swinging it," Cain said. "He hit the ball hard every time today and he's looking real good and we're looking good too."

"There's no question he changes your club and your lineup, including opposing pitchers, seeing Barry out there," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It's pretty remarkable to see him doing what he's doing at his age. You can't say enough about what he's done for us the last couple of days. He amazes me with what he does."

Cain had surrendered just one run in his previous 14 innings over two starts, but was a victim of poor run support and San Francisco's erratic bullpen. A diving stop by second baseman Ray Durham got the last out in the game and kept the bullpen from becoming involved.

"That was great to be able to throw and to have the confidence put into Bochy to let me go ahead and complete the ninth for myself," Cain said. "There's nothing more respectful for me than to let me go ahead and complete the ninth even though I got into some trouble and that's awesome for him to let me do that.

"I was almost behind him when he gloved it," Giants first baseman Rich Aurilia said about Durham's play. "At that point, you've got a slow runner (Tony Clark) and you knock it down, you've got a chance to get the out. Ray's been playing great defense for us so far."

Yusmerio Petit (0-1) pitched well in his first start for the Diamondbacks, allowing two runs and four hits over seven innings. The 22-year-old Venezuelan righthander was picked up from the Florida Marlins in exchange for reliever Jorge Julio just before the start of the regular season.

"Petit threw great. I mean, that says a lot about his performance and he kept us in the game," said Arizona left fielder Eric Byrnes, who had two of the three hits against Cain.

"He pitched great," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "He had a good feel for when guys were looking to pull, go the other way. (Pedro) Feliz hits one ball he gets in the middle early and Barry gets one, those might have been the only two mistakes he made the whole game. He kept the ball down, both sides of the plate, velocity wasn't overpowering, but you don't have to throw hard to get results."

Feliz hit his second homer of the season in the third inning with a blast off Petit into the left field seats.

"(Petit) threw a good game, only a two run game and he didn't throw that many pitches for seven innings," Feliz said. "He can put the ball anywhere he wants and I think we should give him credit because he pitched a good game and that's part of the game.

"Sometimes you're going to throw a good game and lose the game and Matt Cain threw better than him, giving up only one run."