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Bonds hits No. 747 in support of Morris' complete game

Jun 12, 2007 - 6:49 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- A 747 has departed from San Francisco on its way to Hank Aaron and the all-time home run record.

After homering only once since May 8, Barry Bonds blasted his 13th home run of the season off Toronto starter Josh Towers and Matt Morris pitched his 23rd career complete game as the Giants edged the Blue Jays, 4-3, on Monday.

"You know what, whenever you people (in the media) count that big man out, he always responds," Giants center fielder Dave Roberts said. "He said he felt good tonight so you can take it for what it's worth but I took it as he was going to do something special and sure enough he did."

It was the first homer in 13 games for Bonds, who climbed within eight homers of tying Aaron's all-time mark of 755.

"Well, Barry tied the game for us and that was huge," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We needed a shot in the arm and he gave it to us tonight."

The 42-year-old Bonds had not homered since May 27 against the Colorado Rockies.

The blast came off Towers, who became the 440th different pitcher to surrender a homer to the seven-time National League MVP.

"We finally came through on offense," Bonds said. "It's important to score runs. Hopefully this will be momentum we need to start going forward."

"It was a hanging slider that stayed over the middle of the plate," Towers said. "Every pitch seemed to be up. Everything was high and up and that's when you get in trouble."

Morris (7-3) was excellent, allowing three runs, seven hits and a walk in going the distance for the third time in 2007.

"I'm just trying to continue to try to make pitches," Morris said. "There's not much more to it. It's no different whether it's a loss or a win, I'm just trying to put my piece into this puzzle."

The veteran righthander is now 16-5 lifetime in interleague games.

"After that first inning Morris shut us down," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "That's basically what it came down to."

With the Giants trailing, 3-1, in the fourth, Ryan Klesko reached base on an infield single to second. Bonds followed with a two-run blast into the right-center field seats to knot the contest at 3-3.

"Barry told me earlier he was going to hit a home run today," Morris said. "He came up with a big two-run shot which was huge." Morris said.

After Ray Durham hit a double and advanced to third on a single by Bengie Molina, Omar Vizquel executed a suicide squeeze to perfection, giving the Giants a one-run lead.

Towers (2-4) allowed four runs - three earned - and five hits while walking one.

The Jays scored all their runs in the first. Bonds misplayed two fly balls in the opening frame.

On the first pitch of the game, Alex Rios hit a fly ball that Bonds ran down but the ball went in and out of his glove and bounced around on the warning track.

Following a walk to Matt Stairs, Aaron Hill hit a high fly ball to left-center and the ball dropped in between Bonds, who hesitated briefly, and Roberts for a two-run double. Adam Lind's single made it 3-0.