Bonds Helps Giants Stay on Top in West

The San Francisco Giants were in the right place for their third consecutive victory.

Barry Bonds hit his 35th homer and Mark Gardner pitched seven strong innings Wednesday night to lead the Giants to a 4-1 victory over the struggling Montreal Expos at Montreal.

The victory allowed the National League West-leading Giants to remain one game ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1, earlier in the day.

“It’s great to win because everybody was a little low on energy, a little low on excitement,” San Francisco Manager Dusty Baker said.

Bonds hit his 27th homer at Olympic Stadium with two outs in the fifth against Dustin Hermanson (8-11). Bonds passed Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt for the most home runs by a visiting player since the Expos began playing in the stadium in 1977.

Gardner (8-6) scattered six hits, didn’t give up a walk and struck out four. Geoff Blum hit a two-out homer in the seventh for the Expos’ only run.

St. Louis 5, Chicago 1--Edgar Renteria hit a disputed three-run homer to lead the Cardinals at Chicago.

Renteria’s second-inning blast just cleared the basket rimming the left-field bleachers, the ball bouncing back onto the field.

Baserunner J.D. Drew hesitated after rounding second base and started to go back, apparently confused over whether the ball had gone out, and collided with Renteria.

Renteria pushed Drew toward third and Drew continued home. Cub Manager Don Baylor argued with second base umpire Kerwin Danley that Renteria passed Drew and should’ve been called out, but to no avail.

Houston 11, Pittsburgh 10--The Astros hit six home runs for the second time in four days and Moises Alou hit his fifth home run in four games as the Astros hung on at Houston.

Milwaukee 5, Cincinnati 1--Jeff D’Amico earned his seventh consecutive victory and Richie Sexson homered for the second game in a row as the Brewers completed a three-game sweep at Milwaukee.

Atlanta 4, San Diego 1--Kevin Millwood gave up one hit over six shutout innings at Atlanta before leaving because of a knee injury at Atlanta.

Arizona 5, Philadelphia 1--Damian Miller had a career-high four hits and drove in two runs, and Armando Reynoso pitched 7 2/3 strong innings for the Diamondbacks at Philadelphia.