Angels Can’t Pass on Bonds Measure

The Angels tried pitching around Barry Bonds in the first inning Thursday. That didn’t work. They walked Bonds intentionally in the fourth, and that didn’t help matters.

Their avenues seemingly exhausted, the Angels went to a more radical approach in the sixth, going right after the San Francisco Giant slugger who is on pace to shatter Mark McGwire’s single-season home run record.

That was a disaster.

Bonds pounded his major league-leading 34th home run to the deepest part of Pacific Bell Park, just to the left of the 421-foot mark in right-center field, to highlight the Giants’ 10-4 interleague victory before a sun-drenched crowd of 40,478.

Bonds, on pace to hit 83 home runs, also walked and scored in a two-run first, doubled in the second, and walked and scored during a five-run fourth, as the Giants shredded Angel starter Ismael Valdes and swept the three-game series.

Like almost every home run Bonds has hit lately, career No. 528 was a milestone. This one made him the quickest player to reach 34 homers in baseball history, his 66-game achievement bettering Reggie Jackson, who hit 34 homers in 75 games in 1969.

Bonds is also batting .318 with 62 runs batted in, and he leads the major leagues with 60 walks, 46 extra-base hits, a .483 on-base percentage and a .903 slugging percentage. He’s averaging a home run every 5.73 at-bats.

“It’s nice knowing we don’t have to see him again this year,” said Bud Black, Angel pitching coach. “Look at the first inning--two outs, no one on, we want to be careful with him. He draws a walk, and it turns into two runs.

“It’s tough because if you pitch him away, he’s close enough to the plate and talented enough to reach a ball and pull it. The ball inside, he’s quick enough to get the bat head to it. You almost have to treat every pitch to him like an 0-2 pitch.”

Compounding matters for the Angels were the batters ahead of and behind Bonds.

No. 2 hitter Rich Aurilia, who leads the National League with a .366 average, homered in the second, hit an RBI double in the fourth and an infield single in the eighth. Cleanup batter Jeff Kent, who has averaged 29 home runs and 119 RBIs the last four seasons, singled in the first, hit a three-run triple in the fourth and walked and scored in the sixth.

“This team is not just Barry Bonds,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s a huge part of it, but the guys around him are swinging the bats. Aurilia is killing the ball, and Kent has had a couple of monster years. If you’re not going to give Barry anything to hit, you have to contain the rest of the lineup, and we didn’t do that today.”

Valdes was coming off three exceptional starts, in which he gave up four earned runs and 15 hits in 22 2/3 innings, threw a complete game to beat the Royals on June 1 and threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory over the Dodgers last Friday.

But he was not sharp Thursday, giving up eight runs on eight hits in 3 1/3 innings, the first time in the last 17 games an Angel starter failed to work at least five innings. His record fell to 4-4, and his earned run average jumped from 3.51 to 4.37.

After retiring the first two batters in the first, Valdes walked Bonds, gave up a single to Kent and hit J.T. Snow to load the bases. Benito Santiago hit a two-run single, and Armando Rios walked before Pedro Feliz popped to the mound, ending an inning in which Valdes threw 36 pitches.

Aurilia’s homer made it 3-1 in the second, and the Giants batted around in the fourth to take a commanding 8-2 lead. After walking Bonds intentionally to load the bases in the fourth, Kent hit a high fly ball to deep center.

Darin Erstad leaped at the wall when he really didn’t have to, and the ball went just to the right of his glove and off the wall for a three-run triple, knocking Valdes out of the game.

“Ismael tried to pitch behind in the count too often, and they did a good job of being patient,” Scioscia said. “His strength is working quickly, getting ahead of hitters and putting them away. His tempo is slowed when there’s guys on base. He never got in a groove.”

Unlike Bonds, who can’t seem to fall out of one.

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DODGERS AT ANGELS

TONIGHT, 7, Fox Sports Net

Dodgers’ Chan Ho Park

(7-4, 2.75 ERA)

vs. Angels’ Ramon Ortiz

(4-4, 4.00 ERA)

SATURDAY, 7 P.M., Channel 9

Dodgers’ Terry Adams

(2-2, 4.65)

vs. Angels’ Jarrod Washburn

(4-4, 4.39)

SUNDAY, 1 P.M., Fox Sports Net

Dodgers’ Luke Prokopec

(6-3, 4.54)

vs. Angels’ Pat Rapp

(1-7, 4.44)

Chasing History

The pursuit of the major league home run record for a season is in full swing again, with Barry Bonds taking aim at Mark McGwire’s record of 70 set in 1998:

HOME RUNS AFTER

TEAM’S 66TH GAME

BARRY BONDS

2001: 34

MARK McGWIRE

1998: 31

* Bonds update: Hit a 421-foot homer Thursday off the Angels’ Lou Pote in the sixth inning at Pacific Bell Park. He is on pace for 83 home runs.

* Factoid: McGwire didn’t hit 34th homer in 1998 until team’s 76th game.