On This Night, Giants See Both Sides of Barry Bonds

Jun 12, 02:00 AM

Current Headlines: SAN FRANCISCO _ For his opening act, Barry Bonds put the Giants in a hole.

For an encore, he dug them out.

This is what the Giants must accept from Bonds the rest of the way. He will be as much a liability as a game-changer. And on some nights, such as Monday, he will be a bit of both _ and if you're a Giants fan you can only hope he picks the correct order.

In the first inning Monday, Bonds seemed to give up on a ball toward left-center field that led to two Toronto runs. When the ball left Aaron Hill's bat, Bonds slowed up before going for the ball. Center fielder Dave Roberts got there too late. The pitcher, Matt Morris, was clearly upset that a ball that could have been the final out of the inning instead ended up a two-run double. Hill would later score himself, giving the Blue Jays a 3-0 lead.

And with the way the Giants have been hitting, who would have predicted the Giants could overcome such a deficit?

But in the fourth inning, Bonds drove an 0-1 pitch from Josh Towers into the bleachers in right-center field. The home run _ the 747th of his career but only Bonds' second in a month _ tied the score.

And it temporarily healed the Giants, who have been in a world of hurt.

Did the home run make you momentarily forget that the Giants aren't a very good team? That they're mired in last place in the National League West? That this was their first home win since May 23? Their first runs in 21 innings?

That's what the Giants' brain trust hopes. That the home run facade is a clever disguise for an unoriginal philosophy.

This is what this Giants' season is about: the occasional home run from Bonds. The all-consuming countdown to the record held by Henry Aaron (now eight home runs away). It always was, from the moment in December when the Giants opted to bring Bonds back to when they compounded their decision by filling spots around him with journeymen on the downside of their careers. Any pretense otherwise was only a charade.

When Bonds was intentionally walked in the sixth inning, the crowd booed. But you have to ask: Why wouldn't the opposing pitcher walk Bonds all the time? Bonds is old, he's tired, his legs hurt. He appeared to crack after playing about 40 games. Why wouldn't you just walk him into exhaustion?

This is a high-profile June for the Giants. They will spend the month in the glare of the spotlight. Later this week they travel to Boston to play ESPN's second-favorite team. A week later, the traveling klieg light _ the New York Yankees _ comes to town. And then all of baseball will start to focus on San Francisco, its team and all its imperfection.

And through it all, we will have the ongoing, plodding home run countdown.

After the past few weeks, you have to wonder who will be the Giants' representative in the All-Star Game. Based on current evidence it should be Morris, the team's legitimate stopper. Morris won his seventh game Monday, holding the Blue Jays scoreless after the disappointing first inning.

Bonds, who was third among N.L. outfielders in the first round of fan voting, has fallen out of the top three, surpassed by the Chicago Cubs' Alfonso Soriano. If he doesn't make it on voting, he'll have to hope for Tony LaRussa's charity. And if Bonds has another month like the last one, it will be hard to give him the gift of playing in his home ballpark.

The Giants got what they wanted Monday night. A home run from Bonds. A mostly full house for a game early in the week against Toronto (thanks to those All-Star season renewals). And, oh yeah, a win.

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