Monday, April 24, 2006
Many Rockies fans greeted the Giants slugger with jeers.
DENVER (AP) -- Barry Bonds found his elusive power stroke in Denver's thin air.
Bonds homered for the first time this season Saturday night at Coors Field, sending a belt-high fastball from right-hander Aaron Cook 384 feet to left for his 709th career home run.
After circling the bases, Bonds knocked fists with teammates Moises Alou and Pedro Feliz and manager Felipe Alou as he descended into the third-base dugout to jeers and a scattering of applause.
Bonds moved within five home runs of Babe Ruth for the most by a left-handed hitter with 714. It came in his 31st at-bat and 14th game.
For San Francisco's surly slugger, it was one of the longest homerless streaks to start the season. In 1998, he didn't homer until his 13th game and 55th at-bat, the longest season-opening drought of his career when healthy.
Slow start
Hounded by steroid suspicions, a federal probe into his testimony in the BALCO steroid case and baseball's investigation of performance-enhancing drugs, Bonds got off to a slow start this season despite a stellar spring.
Plagued also by sore knees, a swollen left elbow and few pitchers willing to challenge him -- he walked 19 times before hitting his first home run -- Bonds brought a .200 batting average and just one RBI into Saturday night's game.
In the series opener Friday night, he swung at two of the 17 pitches he saw, flying out to the warning track in center field his first time up, then drawing three straight walks before grounding out to first.
Rockies manager Clint Hurdle vowed not to pitch to Bonds if he didn't have to: "Let him find his rhythm somewhere else."
Bonds found it Saturday night in Denver, making Cook his 417th victim and giving the Giants a 2-0 lead.
Day of rest
Bonds wasn't in the starting lineup for Sunday afternoon's game at Colorado, a day after he ended his homerless drought, but his batting average rose nevertheless.
Official scorer Dave Einspahr reviewed Bonds' fourth at-bat from Saturday night, when Cook mishandled his comebacker and was charged with an error. Einspahr changed it to an infield single, raising Bonds' batting average from .206 to .235.
Bonds has one homer and two RBIs in his first 34 at-bats. He's been walked 20 times and has a .518 on-base percentage.
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