Baseball Roundup: Monday's Action on the Diamonds

Jun 12, 03:05 AM

Current Headlines: (CP) - Welcome back to the starting rotation, Josh Towers.

The right-hander gave up Barry Bonds' 747th career homer as the San Francisco Giants beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 Monday night. Bonds moved within eight homers of Hank Aaron's career record with a two-run shot, only the second home run since May 8 for the slugger and his first this month. It looked like Bonds may be getting his stroke back as he chases Aaron's mark.

"You know it's just a matter of time," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "He's going to get it against somebody."

The 42-year-old Bonds sent an 0-1 pitch an estimated 438 feet into the seats in right-centre for his 13th homer of the year and first against Towers (2-4). Bonds got around on a slider that Towers left up, tying the score at 3 in the fourth inning. Omar Vizquel drove in the go-ahead run four batters later.

Towers, who was making his first start after a prolonged stint in the Jays' bullpen, became the 440th pitcher to allow a homer to Bonds. It wasn't the return to the starting rotation he envisioned.

"Every pitch seemed to be up," Towers said. "Everything was high and up, and that's when you get in trouble. Elevation is a sign of fatigue."

In other baseball action, it was: Philadelphia 3 Chicago White Sox 0, Chicago Cubs 2 Houston 1, Seattle 8 Cleveland 7 and Los Angeles Dodgers 5 New York Mets 3.

At San Francisco, Matt Morris (7-3) recovered from a shaky start and pitched a seven-hitter for his 23rd career complete game and third this season.

"Great pitching performance, that's it, and we finally came through on offence," said Bonds, who lately has said he doesn't want to talk about his personal accomplishments and would rather focus on the team. "Hopefully, that's some momentum we need to start going forward."

And then he was off, headed home with his bat-boy son, Nikolai.

The Giants unveiled a new countdown on the main centre-field scoreboard featuring a road sign with "Bonds 747" in the middle and "Road to History" on either side.

"He tied that game for us. That was huge," manager Bruce Bochy said. "We needed a shot in the arm and he gave it to us. ... His legs have bothered him. He's responded well to everything thrown at him."

Bonds hugged and kissed Nikolai when he crossed the plate. Fans jumped to their feet, chanting "Barry! Barry!" as he walked to left field and tipped his cap before the top of the fifth. "Bye, Bye, Baby" - the Giants' theme song back when Bonds' godfather, Willie Mays, was on his way to 660 homers - blared from the sound system.

Bonds had not homered in 33 at-bats since connecting for No. 746 on May 27 against Colorado's Taylor Buchholz. Bonds missed two games at Arizona last week with shin splints.

He had hit only one home run in 77 at-bats and 108 plate appearances since a shot off the Mets' Tom Glavine on May 8.

In Bonds' previous 36 games from April 29 to June 10, he had only four homers after hitting 10 by May 5. It was just his sixth RBI since May 9.

The Giants ended a 21-inning scoreless stretch on Ryan Klesko's RBI groundout in the first, then Klesko led off the fourth with a single before Bonds homered. Toronto reliever Brian Tallet walked Bonds intentionally to start the sixth, Bonds' 22nd intentional free pass and the second he's drawn this year with nobody on base. Boos rained down from all directions.

Bonds grounded into a double play to end the eighth. His home run provided a much-needed lift for the Giants, who ended a six-game home losing streak. They lost three straight last weekend to Oakland and all three games to Colorado from May 25-27.

"Whenever people count that big man out, he always responds," teammate Dave Roberts said. "He felt good tonight. Take that for what it's worth, but I took it as he was going to do something special."

Morris struck out four and walked one, allowing three runs in the first inning before settling down. He has the fourth-lowest ERA in the NL at 2.56.

Aaron Hill hit a two-run double for Toronto and Adam Lind added an RBI single.

Thomas made his first return to the Bay Area since leaving Oakland after the Big Hurt led the Athletics in home runs last season on their way to the AL championship series. Thomas flied out to Bonds deep in left as a pinch-hitter in the seventh.

The Blue Jays are 1-6 against the Giants, including 0-4 in San Francisco. The clubs hadn't met since 2004, when Toronto got swept in the Bay Area.

Phillies 3 White Sox 0

At Philadelphia, Adam Eaton pitched four-hit ball for seven innings, and Ryan Howard, Pat Burrell and Jimmy Rollins homered to lead the Phillies over Chicago.

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Cubs 2 Astros 1

At Chicago, Carlos Zambrano mixed his pitches instead of his punches and hit his second homer of the season to lead the Cubs past Houston.

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Mariners 8 Indians 7

At Cleveland, Raul Ibanez hit a pair of two-run homers and doubled home the go-ahead run in the ninth inning to lead Seattle over the Indians for its fourth straight victory and eighth in nine games.

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Dodgers 5 Mets 3

At Los Angeles, James Loney doubled home the go-ahead run in the sixth inning in his second big league game of the season, and the Dodgers rallied past New York to hand the slumping NL East leaders their seventh loss in eight games.