Bonds Leads Giants

Barry Bonds’ back is out of alignment. It doesn’t seem to be affecting his swing.

Bonds homered for the fourth time in two games and Russ Ortiz allowed four hits in eight innings and drove in two runs as the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-1, Wednesday night at Denver.

Bonds’ back has been bothering him enough over the last few days that Manager Dusty Baker had considered holding him out of today’s game against the Rockies.

But with the Giants only 2 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the National League wild-card race and a potential strike looming, there’s no way Baker is going to keep Bonds out of the lineup.

“We’ve got an off day on Monday, so this isn’t a tough stretch for us,” said Baker, whose team has won four straight and eight of 10. “This is not another 20 in a row stretch for us, so we can try to pace things and try to space out the off days and put the best team on the field at the same time.”

Bonds homered in the first, his 39th, and just missed another in the fifth on a double that hit near the top of the wall in center. He was three for four before being taken out in the bottom of the seventh and finished a triple short of hitting for the cycle.

Jeff Kent homered for the third consecutive game, a solo shot to left off Colorado starter Jason Jennings (15-6) in the first inning. Bonds followed by barely clearing the wall in left three pitches later. It was his fourth homer in five at-bats--he walked in the third Tuesday night--and his fifth consecutive hit.

Pittsburgh 1, Atlanta 0--Brian Giles’ one-out single off reliever Mike Remlinger broke up a scoreless tie in the 10th and the Pirates, shut out by Greg Maddux for nine innings, beat the Braves at Pittsburgh. Mike Williams (2-5) struck out Rafael Furcal with the bases loaded and two out in the 10th to get the win.

Houston 2, San Diego 1--Roy Oswalt won his seventh consecutive start, giving up four hits and pitching into the eighth inning as the Astros won at Houston. Oswalt (17-6) hasn’t lost since July 16. Oswalt has a 1.03 earned-run average during his seven-game winning streak.

St. Louis 9, Cincinnati 2--Garrett Stephenson returned from a three-month layoff by throwing four shutout innings, and pinch-hitter Kerry Robinson had a three-run double as the Cardinals won at Cincinnati.

Montreal 6, Philadelphia 3--Tomo Ohka struck out a career-high 11 and Brad Wilkerson drove in three runs as the Expos won at Philadelphia in a game delayed 2 hours, 1 minute because of rain.

Milwaukee 5, Chicago 1--Lenny Harris had four hits, including a home run, and Glendon Rusch pitched seven strong innings for host Milwaukee.

Florida 7, New York 3--Charles Johnson drove in three runs and six Marlin pitchers helped beat the Mets at Miami.