SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -Barry Bonds had the perfect stage. Only one thing was missing Monday night: the home run he needed to break Hank Aaron’s record.
No. 756 had to wait for at least another day.
Back home two days after matching the Hammer’s mark, Bonds was held in check by a 22-year-old rookie making just his third major league appearance.
Bonds went 0-for-3 with a walk and came out of the game against Washington after seven innings.
The game between the Nationals and San Francisco Giants was tied at 1 after nine innings.
Bonds’ Hall of Fame godfather, Willie Mays, was in the house. So was his oldest daughter after she returned from a trip to Sweden. And so was his 8-year-old daughter, Aisha, who had “Pitch 2 Dad!” written in black marker on her right cheek.
Not to mention 43,000 others who dearly wanted to witness history.
But Bonds never came close. He walked down the dugout steps and disappeared with his batboy son, 17-year-old Nikolai, by his side after striking out against John Lannan in his final try.
So sit tight, San Francisco.
Bonds gets to try again come Tuesday night against Mike Bacsik. Bonds is 0-for-2 with a walk against the left-hander, who certainly will be looking to follow the success of fellow lefty John Lannan – who avoided becoming the 446th different pitcher to surrender one of Bonds’ home runs.
The kid looked nervous for sure, but showed little fear. Lannan didn’t back down, even when the crowd booed him for stepping off the mound to adjust his sleeve before Bonds’ initial at-bat or when he fell behind in the count in his final two confrontations.
Lannan went to 2-0 against Bonds in both the fifth and seventh innings, but rebounded to get Bonds out.
With one on and none out in the fifth after Randy Winn’s leadoff single, Bonds drew two balls before grounding into a rare 6-5-3 double play against a shifted infield. Then in the seventh, Bonds struck out swinging.
He fouled out to third in the first on a nice running play by Ryan Zimmerman, then walked on five pitches in the third on a cool summer evening in the Bay Area. The first-pitch temperature was 60 degrees in the Giants’ waterfront ballpark.
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