Rockies Waste a Chance to Increase Lead : Baseball: Vander Wal sets pinch-hit record, but homers by Hill, Bonds give Giants 5-3 victory.

Having heard the boos for Deion Sanders, Barry Bonds took no chances. He responded to his 30th home run Thursday night by applauding himself as he began a slow tour of the bases.

The two-run shot in the fifth inning, coupled to a two-run homer by Glenallen Hill in the third, helped lift the San Francisco Giants to a 5-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Candlestick Park.

The loss was not as grievous as it might have been for the Rockies. The Dodgers also lost, leaving the Rockies with a 1 1/2-game lead in the National League West.

The Rockies have 10 games left, seven against the Giants; the Dodgers have nine games left.

“Colorado is going to have to earn it against us,” said Bonds. “The Dodgers did it to us in ‘93, and we’re going to try to do it to [the Rockies]. If we knock them off . . . well, it’s tough luck. No one cried for us in ’93.”

Colorado Manager Don Baylor found no solace in the Dodgers’ defeat.

“We can’t expect the Dodgers to lose night after night,” he said. “I’d rather see us put some wins together. I don’t want to have to worry about what the Dodgers are doing.”

An announced crowd of 12,968 on a typically cold and windy night saw veteran right-hander Sergio Valdez restrict the Rockies to seven hits through seven-plus innings before Mark Dewey and Rod Beck preserved the two-run lead--Beck getting the final out with two on for his 31st save of a season in which he has blown 10.

Valdez, 31, is 12-19 in a seven-year career during which he has pitched for five major league teams, but he is also a winner of three of four starts this September. He gave up two runs in the fourth, when the Rockies took advantage of two walks and a hit batter and shortstop Royce Clayton turned the potential tying single into the third out with a scrambling and spectacular play behind second.

The Rockies’ only other run came on a solo homer by the persistent John Vander Wal in the seventh.

It was Vander Wal’s fourth pinch-homer of a season in which he now has a major league record 26 pinch-hits, breaking a tie with Jose Morales, who had 25 for the Montreal Expos in 1976.

The Rockies knew this was a night when their potent offense would have to be in gear.

They nursed five effective innings out of Bill Swift’s sore shoulder in a 10-2 victory at San Diego on Wednesday night, but former Angel Joe Grahe, still rehabilitating a shoulder operated on last winter and making his first start since July 16 after spending all of August on the disabled list, wasn’t helped by the chill and wasn’t as sharp.

Grahe forced the Giants to strand two runners in both the first and second innings, but singles by John Patterson and Bonds and a sacrifice fly by Matt Williams produced the first run in the third, and Allen followed with a two-out homer, his 23rd. Bonds connected after Patterson opened the fifth with a single.

Bonds chose to applaud his blast on a night that fans booed Sanders in his first game at Candlestick since he jilted the San Francisco 49ers and signed a five-year, $25-million contract with the Dallas Cowboys.

Sanders, who had two infield hits despite playing on an injured ankle that will be operated on when the season is over, said the booing didn’t bother him because he overcomes adversity every year.

“I have only one quote tonight,” he said. “A lot of people say money is the root of all evil. Ever since I signed the contract, that’s all I’ve been hearing--a lot of evil. If the only thing they can say bad about me is that I took finances for my family, I can live with myself.”

Said San Francisco Manager Dusty Baker: “I hate to see him booed because I know he cares [about the booing]. Of course, once he goes to the bank, that should helped those feelings subside.”