McElroy Keeps Bonds in Check

Chuck McElroy isn’t afraid to pitch to Barry Bonds. That fearlessness worked Saturday.

“I just go right at him with my best stuff. That’s the way I was taught,” said McElroy, who retired Bonds with the tying run at second base in the ninth inning as the Colorado Rockies defeated San Francisco, 1-0, for their seventh consecutive victory.

Pedro Astacio (12-14) did not allow a runner past first base until the ninth, when Marvin Benard hit a leadoff single and Rich Aurilia sacrificed. McElroy came in and got Bonds to line out to center.

Bonds, who struck out against McElroy late in Colorado’s 7-6 victory Friday night, is one for 29 against the reliever.

McElroy threw his first major league pitch in 1989 for Philadelphia, getting Bonds, then playing for Pittsburgh, to line out.

“You just keep pushing the envelope until it changes,” said Rockie Manager Don Baylor, who said he never hesitated to remove Astacio during a shutout to set up the McElroy-Bonds confrontation. “But sometimes it just takes one bloop hit and he might go 10 for 10.”

So far, Bonds has gone one for 10 years.