GIANTS Bonds' mates deliver victory
San Francisco kept its half-game lead in the NL wild-card race over Chicago.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Barry Bonds praised his teammates for their clutch play while he's been busy walking all season, then watched them go out and do most of the work Tuesday night.
Pedro Feliz matched his career high with four RBIs, and Brett Tomko won his sixth straight decision in the San Francisco Giants' 9-2 victory over the Houston Astros.
Bonds, who had two days to rest after being held out of the lineup Sunday and getting a team day off Monday, drove in a run to help the Giants win for the eighth time in nine games, but also got plunked in the right shin by Houston reliever Russ Springer in the eighth.
San Francisco snapped Houston's four-game winning streak to maintain a half-game lead in the NL wild-card race over the Chicago Cubs.
The Giants also closed within 11/2 games of division-leading Los Angeles in the NL West.
Bonds' contract
Before the game, the Giants announced they would drop their right to void the final year of Bonds' contract, meaning the slugger will have at least two more seasons with San Francisco to break Hank Aaron's career home run record of 755.
Deivi Cruz had three hits, drove in two runs and scored twice for San Francisco, and Dustan Mohr singled three times and scored twice.
Bonds remained at 701 homers, finishing the day 0-for-3 with his 107th intentional walk. He hit his 700th home run last Friday night, then followed with 701 on Saturday.
Tomko, coming off a four-hitter in an 8-1 victory at Milwaukee last Wednesday, struck out five and walked three. He gave way to Jim Brower with two outs in the ninth after walking Lance Berkman.
Back-to-back homers
The Giants rallied after Jeff Bagwell and Berkman homered on back-to-back pitches in the first inning to give the Astros a 2-0 lead.
Bagwell hit a 3-2 pitch from Tomko over Bonds in left field for his 26th homer of the year. Berkman then connected on the first pitch and sent it over the arcade in right for his 28th of the season.
It marked the ninth time this season the Astros have hit consecutive homers.
The Giants responded with three runs in the bottom half on three hits. Bonds was credited for an RBI when his hard roller got past shifted shortstop Jose Vizcaino for an error.