Giants Make a Sweeping Statement

While Barry Bonds waited for No. 40, Calvin Murray embraced No. 4.

Murray hit a three-run home run in the second inning Sunday and the San Francisco Giants defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4, at San Francisco for their third consecutive victory.

It was Murray’s fourth home run of the season, which he has spent bouncing between the Giants and triple-A Fresno.

Bonds, who became the 17th major leaguer to hit 500 homers in April, was honored with an on-field ceremony.

The three-game series against the Cardinals had been hyped as a showdown between Bonds, who leads the majors with 39 homers, and Mark McGwire, who hit a record 70 in 1998.

But neither member of the elite 500 club made much of an impact. McGwire went 0 for 4, extending his hitless streak to 0 for 22 over six games.

Bonds walked three times before a seventh-inning drive to deep left field put the sellout crowd on its feet. But the ball fell about a foot short of a home run, giving Bonds a double.

“He’ll get to 40 someday soon,” Manager Dusty Baker said.

Bonds returned to the lineup after sitting out Saturday because of a sore right wrist. He injured it Friday while catching Albert Pujols’ deep fly to left.

The Cardinals, who have lost five in a row, took a 1-0 lead on Jim Edmonds’ sacrifice fly in the first inning.

Mike Matheny added a run-scoring single against Mark Gardner in the second, followed by Fernando Vina’s sacrifice fly and Placido Polanco’s run-scoring single as St. Louis went ahead, 4-0.

San Francisco rallied for five runs in the second. Ramon Martinez and Zerbe each hit RBI singles before Murray’s three-run homer against Andy Benes (6-6) put the Giants ahead.

“It was just a bad day on a day when they needed me to pitch well,” Benes said.

Robb Nen pitched the ninth for his National League-leading 25th save.

Bonds, who has not homered in six games, needs one more to match Jimmie Foxx for 10th on the all-time list with 534. Bonds’ last homer was against Darryl Kile on June 23 at St. Louis.

Arizona 5, Colorado 4--Mike Hampton hit his sixth home run, the most by a pitcher in 30 years, but Reggie Sanders homered in the 13th to lift the Diamondbacks at Phoenix.

Hampton, who has four homers in his last 12 at-bats, is the first pitcher to hit six in one season since 1971, when Ferguson Jenkins, Sonny Siebert and Rick Wise did it. Hampton is three shy of the record for pitchers, set by Wes Ferrell of the Cleveland Indians in 1931.

Philadelphia 8, Florida 1--Nelson Figueroa earned his first major league victory as the Phillies completed the second five-game sweep in club history with the victory at Philadelphia.

After being swept last week by the Atlanta Braves to fall out of first place for the first time since April 9, the Phillies responded by taking five in a row from Florida to move back on top in the National League East.

New York 2, Atlanta 1--Kevin Appier gave up three hits in eight scoreless innings at Atlanta and also had the first RBI of his career.

Robin Ventura hit a solo home run for the Mets, who have won only three of their last 11 games.

Atlanta lost for only the second time in 10 games and dropped two games behind the Phillies.

Houston 6, Milwaukee 1--Wade Miller scattered seven hits over seven innings at Milwaukee.

Miller (10-3) struck out eight and walked two. Brewer right-hander Paul Rigdon (3-5) left after 2 2/3 innings when he aggravated his strained right elbow. He was making his second start since coming off the 15-day disabled list.

Chicago 2, Cincinnati 1--Jon Lieber defeated the Reds for the third time this season and slumping Joe Girardi had three hits at Cincinnati.

Montreal 9, Pittsburgh 3--Before a crowd of only 6,631 at Montreal, Vladimir Guerrero hit the first grand slam of his career and had five RBIs.