Strawberry Takes a Giant Step in Return : Baseball: He goes hitless in three at-bats but is pleased with his comeback performance.

Darryl Strawberry got plenty of cheers but no hits in his return to the major leagues.

On a bright, warm Thursday at Candlestick Park, Strawberry took the first step in yet another comeback from injury and substance abuse, making his debut with the San Francisco Giants. It was his first major league game since last June 16 with the Dodgers.

Since then, he’s been out with back injuries and in the Betty Ford Center getting treatment for drug and alcohol abuse.

“Today ranks with me as a new beginning, a new birth as far as my career,” Strawberry said. “Today is a good start for the Giants and also for myself.”

When he stepped to the plate for the first time, there was only a smattering of boos among the cheers.

Batting fifth behind All-Stars Barry Bonds and Matt Williams, he went hitless in three at-bats and was walked intentionally in the eighth before being removed for a pinch-runner.

The Giants defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-4, to end a three-game losing streak.

“He brings a lot of threat with him,” Williams said. “It’s good for everybody, not just me and not just Barry.”

After grounding out to second base his first two times up, Strawberry hit a long drive off Shawn Boskie in the sixth, just after Williams homered. But Milt Thompson robbed Strawberry of a home run, catching the ball just above the fence in straightaway center.

“Warning track power,” Strawberry joked.

“No, I hit it pretty good. Milt made a good play. It’s shows I’m capable of hitting the ball.”

Thompson knew if he didn’t catch the ball, it was gone.

“I could prepare myself to jump because I got back there so fast and because the ball was hit so high,” he said.

Signed by the Giants on June 19, less than a month after getting out of rehab, Strawberry hit .300 in three games at triple-A Phoenix of the Pacific Coast League.

“It’s nice to be back in a big league ballpark,” he said. “It’s been a long time since I performed in a big league ballpark.”

To say Strawberry was eager to get back to the bigs would be an understatement. After just two games, in which he homered twice, he told the Giants he was ready to come up. They asked him to wait a day, so he played one more game with the Firebirds on Wednesday night.

But at 6:15 a.m. Thursday, Strawberry was on a plane bound for San Francisco and was at the ballpark before 9 a.m., a departure for a player fined numerous times for showing up late.

Even in his new No. 17 uniform, he looked like the same old Strawberry in batting practice, a wad of chew stuffed in his cheek.

Certainly, his bat was as quick as ever. Strawberry, who played just 75 games the last two seasons, hit six balls out, two into the upper deck, sending fans scurrying to retrieve the balls.

When he was finished, a group of about two dozen fans standing behind the dugout applauded enthusiastically and begged for autographs, but Strawberry strode quickly into the clubhouse and back to his locker.

Starting in right field, Strawberry handled five chances cleanly.

Despite Strawberry’s troubled past, the fans gave him a warm welcome. He even had his own cheering section: six young men dressed as strawberries, green bandannas on their heads and chests painted red. They hung a “Strawberry Patch” banner from their seats in the center field bleachers.

A sign reading, “We are behind U Darryl,” hung in right field.