Padres pitchers hold Bonds at 754

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Padres don’t hit a lot of home runs. They probably never will, at least so long as they call Petco Park their home.

But the man San Diego came to boo Friday could have been the man the Padres called their left fielder. As Bonds languished on the market last winter, and the San Francisco Giants waited to see whether any other team would consider signing him, the Padres thought long and hard about it.

“Barry’s a great player,” General Manager Kevin Towers said Friday. “He certainly could impact your offense. It’s an area we’ve been struggling in.

“The bigger question was: This guy will become the face of our organization, and is that something we should want? We finally decided we wouldn’t continue to pursue it.”

So Trevor Hoffman remained the face of the organization, Jose Cruz Jr. started in left field for the Padres on opening day and Bonds arrived here Friday, on the verge of making history wearing black and orange instead of navy blue and sand.

History would wait, again. Bonds went hitless in four at-bats in the Padres’ 4-3, 10-inning victory, leaving him stuck at 754, one home run short of tying Hank Aaron’s record. Since his last home run, Bonds has 18 official at-bats, 10 walks and two hits, both singles.

The sellout crowd booed his every at-bat, with about 100 fans behind third base waving asterisks each time he walked to the plate. Although a fan threw a syringe into left field when Bonds played here last year, there were no incidents Friday, with two dozen security officers ringing the field every time the game stopped.

Bonds, who turned 43 last month, started his eighth consecutive game Friday. He was expected to play tonight and rest Sunday, after which the Giants return home.

“As long as he feels great, he’ll be out there,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said.

He might not feel great hitting here. He is a lifetime .169 hitter at Petco, with three home runs in 77 at-bats, in a park where a left-handed hitter must pull a ball more than 400 feet in his power alley for a home run.

“You have to absolutely crush it,” Padres pitcher Jake Peavy said.

The Padres needed a crusher when they considered hiring Bonds. They have since cut Cruz and have started six players in left field, including the current occupant, Milton Bradley.

Bradley, on his fifth team in seven seasons, brings along plenty of baggage. But he travels lightly compared to Bonds, whose quest for the record has attracted a suffocating crowd of media and stirred national debate about his alleged use of steroids and the legitimacy of this record or any other in baseball’s steroid era.

“It has to be difficult,” Towers said. “You have a guy who’s that big of a star, and the focus is on him for 162 games. It has to be tough on Barry as well.”

Had the Padres signed Bonds, the saga might have been toughest on Bud Black, in his first year as the San Diego manager after seven seasons as the Angels’ pitching coach.

Black had not previously managed, even in the minor leagues, and Bonds Watch requires a manager to endure twice-daily news conferences with hordes of reporters interested in one player, not the team.

“It certainly would have been a tough way to break in your first year,” said Bochy, in his 18th season as a manager, 13th in the majors. “You’re so focused on winning games, and having so much attention on one player, it might be difficult.”

The awkwardness for Black in managing Bonds would have been compounded by the fact that the two were teammates, on the Giants in 1993 and 1994.

“He’s one of the smartest players I’ve ever played with,” Black said. “I remember a lot of times when he would come in the dugout and offer real solid suggestions on how to pitch a guy -- to me, to [Bill] Swift, to [John] Burkett.

“And he would be right.”

After the Padres hired him last fall, Black said, Towers asked how he would feel about managing Bonds.

“I was fine with it,” Black said. “At the time, I would have said, ‘Yeah, it’s a great challenge.’ And it would have been.”

Yet, as he stood on the field Friday afternoon and glanced at the media invasion of Petco Park, Black acknowledged he really had no idea how big Bonds Watch would have become.

“It’s probably bigger,” he said, “than any of us expected.”

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

CHASING AARON

Hank Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth’s career home run record of 714 in 1974, and finished with 755. Barry Bonds is closing on Aaron’s record:

* Home runs: 754.

* Friday: 0 for 4.

* Projected date to break record: Aug. 14 at Atlanta.

* Next for Giants: vs. Padres tonight (Clay Hensley).

* Bonds vs. Hensley: .182, (2 for 11), no home runs.