LATE FRIDAY Bonds highlights Giants' surge toward playoffs

Barry Bonds approached Willie Mays' career home run total in beating L.A.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds walked into the concourse at Pacific Bell Park on his way out for the night to roaring cheers of "Two more! Two more!"
The San Francisco slugger hit his 658th home run and the Giants clobbered the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-1 Friday night.
After sitting in a clubhouse office talking with Willie Mays before the game, Bonds moved within two homers of tying his godfather for third on the career list.
Bonds has said he doesn't want to talk about the mark until he reaches it.
"Three more games, then playoffs," he said.
Long ball
He sent a 1-0 pitch from Kazuhisa Ishii an estimated 392 feet into the seats in right-center for his 45th homer of the season, matching Philadelphia's Jim Thome and Milwaukee's Richie Sexson for the NL lead.
Bonds also singled twice and received a standing ovation when he was replaced by pinch-runner Todd Linden in the sixth. Bonds waved to the crowd before disappearing into the dugout.
Rich Aurilia hit a three-run homer, and Ray Durham added a three-run triple off the top of the wall for the Giants. He also hit two doubles.
"The regulars were really rested and we saw some pretty good swings," manager Felipe Alou said. "Most guys had two days off."
The NL West champions will play Florida, the wild-card winner, in the first round of the playoffs. The best-of-five series begins Tuesday in San Francisco with Jason Schmidt on the mound for the Giants.
Kirk Rueter (10-5) got all the offense he needed early to win his third straight decision. The left-hander retired the first 10 Los Angeles hitters, giving up a one-out single to Jolbert Cabrera in the fourth.
Rueter became the first Giants left-hander to win at least 10 games in seven consecutive seasons since Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell did it 15 straight years from 1928-42. Rueter allowed one run on three hits, striking out one and walking none.
The Giants lead the season series 11-5, including 6-1 at Pacific Bell Park.
Rough outing
Ishii got into trouble right away. Durham hit a leadoff double and Marquis Grissom walked. Both advanced on a balk and Aurilia connected for his 13th homer of the season for a 3-0 lead. Durham tripled in the third to make 6-0. Grissom added a two-run single in the fifth.
Ishii (9-7) was tagged for seven runs on eight hits and is 0-4 in his last eight starts. He hasn't won since July 18 against St. Louis.
Ishii became the 388th pitcher to give up a homer to Bonds.
"I think anyone would have hit a homer if I threw it down the middle of the plate like that," he said.
In the third, the Giants' Edgardo Alfonzo hit a high fly to right-center and center fielder Dave Roberts and right fielder Shawn Green both charged to the ball. Roberts thought Green was going to catch it and bent over with his hands on his knees to try to stay out of the way. The ball dropped to the ground just behind him for a single.
"It wasn't a good night for us, we made some mistakes and it didn't turn out well," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. "We created some opportunities for them with mistakes and walks. Ishii has been having some command problems and tonight was no different."
The Giants' win gave them a San Francisco-record 141/2-game lead over second-place Los Angeles, the franchise's largest advantage since the New York Giants held the same lead over the Cubs and Pirates 86 years ago, on July, 9, 1912. Those Giants led both clubs by 15 games on July 9 and 151/2 games on July 6.
Cards ousted
PHOENIX -- The St. Louis Cardinals failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999, and manager Tony La Russa could only watch from a booth in the press box.
Shea Hillenbrand's leadoff home run ignited a three-run sixth inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks eliminated the Cardinals from the NL Central race with a 7-6 win.
La Russa was serving the first of a two-game suspension for remarks about umpire Jerry Crawford last Saturday in Houston. After Friday's game, he was asked how tough it was to not be able to be with his team in the dugout as the team's last fleeting chance slipped away.
"That's a very good question, and the answer to that question would get me not just in trouble again but in more trouble than I am right now," La Russa said. "But it's one of the most maddening and upsetting experiences I've had, and I've been around a while, to sit there and watch your club get eliminated."
Hillenbrand's 414-foot shot to straightaway center off Brett Tomko tied it at 3.
Carlos Baerga drove in the go-ahead run with a pinch-hit single, then Steve Finley doubled in pinch-runner Quinton McCracken from first to put Arizona up 5-3.
Baerga's 18th pinch-hit of the season tied the club record set by David Dellucci in 2001. Hillenbrand also had an RBI bloop single in the Diamondbacks' two-run seventh.
"When you don't have anything left to play for, the best you can hope to do is ruin their party," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said. "Since they knocked us out of the playoffs last year, that didn't hurt my feelings at all to do that to them tonight."
Tino Martinez was 3-for-3, including a two-run homer off Jose Valverde that cut the lead to 7-5 in the eighth.