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Bonds homers, but Rodriguez goes 4-for-4 as Yanks top Giants

Jun 23, 2007 - 7:46 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) - The New York Yankees bounced back from an embarrassing sweep in the first three games of their road trip, overcoming another home run by Barry Bonds in his historic march towards history.

Alex Rodriguez went 4-for-4 and knocked in two runs as the Yankees posted a 7-3 victory over Bonds and the San Francisco Giants in the opener of a three-game set at AT&T Park Friday night.

But it was another historic night for Bonds, who belted his 749th career homer in his fourth plate appearance, moving him six behind Hank Aaron's all-time mark. The veteran slugger had struggled in his first two at-bats - grounding weakly to second and striking out - before walking with the bases loaded his third time up.

Bonds blew past reporters post game, saying only, "I don't talk about it after a loss, guys."

While Bonds would not say anything about it, Rodriguez had plenty to say about Bonds chase for the top of the home run list.

"You get caught up as a fan to see Barry Bonds," Rodriguez said. "He's one of a kind. I'm a huge Barry Bonds fan. It's a beautiful thing to watch. As long as we win the game, he can do whatever he wants. All we want to do is win. He can have all the home runs."

New York manager Joe Torre, who tied Leo Durocher for 10th place on the career wins list with 2,009, has seen plenty of Bonds highlights to last him.

"Barry Bonds has been a great player for a long, long, long time," Torre said. "He used to beat my brains out when he was at Pittsburgh. If you all see that little clip of him where he's throwing his hands straight up in the air - that was against me. It's nothing new for me to see. It's a matter of what side of the field you're on."

Melky Cabrera had two RBI for the Yankees, who picked up a much-needed victory after a humiliating sweep against the Colorado Rockies this week. New York scored just five runs in that series.

But the Yankees revved up their offense right away in this one. After going down in order in the first, they scored three in the second on a sacrifice fly from Hideki Matsui and a two-run single by Cabrera.

Three innings later, Bobby Abreu added to the lead with a booming RBI double, and Rodriguez followed with a run-scoring single to stake New York to a 5-0 lead.

It spelled doom for the Giants, who have not rallied from a three-run deficit to win a game this season.

But San Francisco's beleaguered offense showed a glimmer of life, scoring twice in the fifth. At that point, Giants ace Matt Cain (2-8) was already done after allowing five runs and seven hits with four walks and no strikeouts in five innings.

"I have to take it as another start and approach it that way," Cain said. "They took advantage of my bad pitches. I put my team in a bad situation for the rest of the game and that's terrible by me."

"Matty has been out tough luck," San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. "We've had a tough time getting him runs. Their guy was pitching well early. We did get to him, we were just too far down there."

Already trailing, 5-0, the Giants scored on an RBI single by Omar Vizquel and then loaded the bases for Bonds, who drew a walk to close the gap to 5-2.

Bengie Molina then ripped a 2-2 pitch to the wall in left, which was caught by Matsui as he slammed into the wall to end the threat and prevent an even bigger inning.

But New York kept the pressure on San Francisco thanks to Cabrera, who hit a two-out triple and scored on Derek Jeter's single to make it 6-2 in the sixth. Jeter extended his hitting streak to 16 games.

"Maybe we do better in this altitude," Rodriguez said. "We bounced back nicely. Everyone one through nine swung the bats well. I wasn't trying to do too much. It's one of the most beautiful settings of any ballpark I've ever seen. Of all the new ballparks, it's my favorite."

Rookie starter Kei Igawa, who was making his first start since being recalled from the minor leagues, tossed 4 2/3 innings, allowing two runs and five hits with five strikeouts.

"I don't know if he was anxious about getting through the fifth inning or not," Torre said. "He certainly was impressive the first four innings. He was down with everything. The way he pitched to Barry those two times was very impressive."

Luis Vizcaino (4-1), Mike Myers and Scott Proctor combined to throw 2 2/3 innings, bridging the gap to Mariano Rivera, who got five outs for his ninth save of the season.

Vizquel had two hits and an RBI for the Giants, who lost their eighth straight game.