One Swing From Bonds SpoilsEffort by Angels

It is a dangerous game the Angels play, though they greet it with shrugs and smiles and, OK, a free-agent draft that saw them take 11 pitchers in 20 rounds.

They fall behind, they hit until they catch up. It works as often as it doesn’t.

It can by mystifying. And mystical. And just plain weird.

Leaning exhaustively against a deficit for nearly all of nine innings, they scored twice in the ninth inning against the San Francisco Giants on Monday night and forced extra innings, only to have Barry Bonds authoritatively untie it.

Bonds hit his major league-leading 24th home run with two out in the 11th inning and the Giants defeated the Angels, 5-4, in an interleague game at Edison Field.

Angel reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa (4-1) retired the first two batters of the 11th, then, with Bonds approaching the batter’s box, met briefly with pitching coach Bud Black.

The second pitch was the one no one wanted Bonds to get, the one Haswegawa certainly was advised against. It was a split-fingered fastball, up in the strike zone, and Bonds hit it into the right-center field bleachers.

“We just wanted to make sure we were on the same page with what we were trying to do with Bonds there,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said of Black’s trip to the mound. “Hasegawa got that splitter up in the zone and that’s all it took.”

Bonds’ homer ended a string of eight scoreless innings for the Giants, who gave away a two-run lead two innings before.

Aaron Fultz (1-2) pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for the Giants.

That the Angels got to the 11th was a marvel in itself. They trailed, 4-2, when the ninth inning began.

Driving his second consecutive ninth-inning rally, Kevin Stocker drew a two-out walk against Giant closer Robb Nen. Stocker advanced to second base on defensive indifference, then scored on Mo Vaughn’s single to right field. Orlando Palmeiro replaced the ponderous Vaughn at first.

Tim Salmon drove a 2-and-2 pitch off Nen’s thigh. The baseball fell to the infield. Nen gathered himself just enough to reach the ball and throw it wildly into right field.

Palmeiro scored from first base as Nen pounded the grass with his fist.

In seven-plus innings, Giant starter Livan Hernandez allowed 11 hits but only two runs.

Angel reliever Al Levine pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of starter Scott Schoeneweis, who didn’t allow a run after a rocky second inning.

Schoeneweis , the left-hander with the fickle sinker, allowed a run in the first inning and three more in the second. Per the latest scouting reports on Schoeneweis, Giant batters were wary initially, taking sinkers early in the count that fell out of the strike zone.

When Schoeneweis brought the pitches up, the Giant bat barrels were waiting.

Bill Mueller drew a one-out walk in the first inning and scored on Jeff Kent’s double, a long opposite-field drive that banged off the right-field scoreboard.

Salmon played the carom crisply, and might have had a play on Mueller at the plate. There was confusion defensively, however, as the Angel infielders were aligned for a relay to the plate and Salmon threw to second base.

A determined sort who pulls his cap down tight and doesn’t appear to find humor in much, Schoeneweis pitched through that confusion, along with a two-out error in the fifth by Stocker, the new shortstop, and a two-out throwing error by catcher Bengie Molina in the sixth. That’s 14 for Stocker in 43 games, though he appears more sure-handed than that.

In the second inning, Schoeneweis allowed a lead-off single to designated-hitter Russ Davis hit former Angel J.T. Snow in the shoulder with a 1-and-1 pitch. Though Ramon Martinez struck out after failing to sacrifice, Bobby Estalella slammed a double to left field, scoring Davis. Calvin Murray’s grounder to shortstop scored Snow. Bill Mueller’s single to center scored Estalella.