Bonds Belts Two More in 4-3 Loss

Barry Bonds hit two home runs Wednesday night, moving past Willie McCovey and Ted Williams into 11th place on the all-time list with 522, but the San Francisco Giants lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3, at San Francisco.

Tony Womack hit a two-run single and Jay Bell homered for the Diamondbacks, who have won their last six games, including a 1-0, 18-inning victory over the Giants that started Tuesday night and ended early Wednesday. The Diamondbacks also beat the Giants, 2-1, in 12 innings Monday.

Robert Ellis (4-2) gave up both of Bonds’ homers, accounting for all three Giant runs. He gave up seven hits with three strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.

Bret Prinz pitched the ninth for his fifth save.

Livan Hernandez (3-8), who leads the majors in losses, gave up four runs and 13 hits in 7 2/3 innings.

The Diamondbacks went up, 2-0, on Womack’s bases-loaded single with two outs in the second inning.

Bonds narrowed the margin in the bottom half with his major league-leading 27th home run. The high-arching solo home run sailed over the right-field wall and splashed down into McCovey Cove, where waiting boaters scrambled to scoop it up.

Bonds made the score 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth with his 28th homer. The shot against Ellis, which also scored Jeff Kent, just cleared the center-field fence.

After Bonds rounded the bases, he stopped to shake hands with McCovey, who was sitting in the front row near the Giants’ dugout.

Bonds has homered in nine of his last 13 games, including a three-run performance at Atlanta on May 19. His two-homer game Wednesday was the 49th multihomer game of his career.

He has 17 home runs in May, surpassing the record set by Mark McGwire in 1998 and Mickey Mantle in 1956.

Bonds is the fastest player to reach 28 home runs in a season, doing it in 53 games. McGwire reached 28 in 59 games in 1998, the year he went on to hit a record 70 home runs.

In the previous game between the teams that lasted five hours 53 minutes, Erubiel Durazo’s double off Ryan Vogelsong in the 18th inning scored Steve Finley with the only run.

Greg Swindell--Arizona’s seventh pitcher--worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam for his first save since April 15, 2000, and the sixth in 16th major league seasons. He got catcher Benito Santiago, who was behind the plate for all 18 innings, to pop to second for the final out.

Houston 7, San Diego 4--Craig Biggio homered on the game’s second pitch and starter Wade Miller went three for three at San Diego to help the Astros end a losing streak at eight games.

The Astros jumped on Bobby Jones early, getting 11 of their 13 hits against him in the first two innings, when every regular plus Miller got at least one hit. Brad Ausmus and Jeff Bagwell each had a hit in the first and second innings.

Houston sent 11 batters to the plate in the second inning, scoring five runs on eight hits.

Ryan Klesko of the Padres homered in the first for his 39th and 40th runs batted in of May, breaking Ken Caminiti’s club record for RBIs in a month. Caminiti drove in 38 runs in August 1996 en route to winning the most valuable player award by a unanimous vote.

Milwaukee 11, St. Louis 1--Jeffrey Hammonds hit two home runs and Ron Belliard drove in three runs at St. Louis in a game shortened to five innings because of rain.

The Brewers have outscored the Cardinals, 18-1, and outhit them, 25-10, the last two games. Before Tuesday, St. Louis had won nine in a row at home, and Milwaukee had lost four in a row.

The game was called after a delay of 38 minutes because of unplayable conditions and an unfavorable forecast.

Chicago 3, Cincinnati 1--Sammy Sosa hit his first homer in two weeks, a two-run shot off the foundation of Cincinnati’s new ballpark, and the Cubs won their 10th in a row.

The Cubs (31-20) extended their best run since a 10-game streak in 1998 and added to one of their best starts. For only the third time in their history, the Cubs have 31 victories before June 1.

Six of their last 10 have come at the expense of the Reds, who finished off a 6-22 May--their most losses in a month since 1952. The Reds are off today before starting a two-week trip.

Florida 9, Pittsburgh 7--Charles Johnson hit a tiebreaking double in the 10th inning at Pittsburgh.

After Brian Giles tied the score at 6-6 with a solo homer for the Pirates with two outs in the ninth, the Marlins rallied with three runs in the 10th to win for the second time in three games since Tony Perez took over from John Boles as manager.

Philadelphia 6, New York 3--The Phillies completed a three-game sweep at New York, putting the National League East leaders 15 games over .500 for the first time since July 2, 1995.

Bobby Abreu and Doug Glanville hit 400-foot home runs and rookie Marlon Anderson’s two-out single broke an eighth-inning tie.

Montreal 4, Atlanta 3--Javier Vazquez (5-5) pitched eight strong innings and the Expos beat Greg Maddux (4-5) at Atlanta.

Vazquez (5-5) gave up a homer to Andruw Jones but otherwise dominated the Braves, who got only two runners past first base and failed to get their first three-game winning streak of the season.