Bonds puts McGwire's record of 70 HRs in serious jeopardy

LOS ANGELES -- Babe Ruth's record of 60 homers stood for 34 years, and Roger Maris' 61 held up another 37 before Mark McGwire set a much higher standard in 1998.

The way San Francisco's Barry Bonds has been going, it appears 70 will soon be erased as baseball's newest magical number.

Thanks to three homers in his last two games and seven in his last eight, Bonds entered Tuesday night's game against the Los Angeles Dodgers three shy of McGwire's record with 11 games left on the Giants' schedule.

Bonds had five homers in 36 lifetime at-bats against right-hander Chan Ho Park, the scheduled Los Angeles starter.

Left-hander Terry Mulholland, the probable pitcher for the Dodgers on Wednesday night in the finale of the three-game series, has allowed seven homers to Bonds in 52 at-bats.

Bonds' most recent homer was a laser shot into the right field box seats in the seventh inning Monday night, providing the difference in a 2-1 Giants' victory.

"It's like when the game's on the line, you want Michael Jordan taking the last shot, Joe Montana going to Jerry Rice," Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "You expect that. It's Gretzky and Lemieux -- everybody knows it, and they do it anyway."

Perhaps lost in Bonds' pursuit of McGwire's record -- although not by the 37-year-old slugger and his team -- is the fact that the Giants are battling for a playoff spot -- they entered Tuesday's game trailing the NL-leading Arizona Diamondbacks by 1 1/2 games.

That wasn't the case for McGwire three years ago as he and Sammy Sosa put on their fun-filled chase of the mark Maris set in 1961.

McGwire reached 70 by hitting five homers in his final three games, while Sosa settled for 66, which stood as the second-most homers ever in a season until Bonds connected Monday night.

Bonds has often said winning is the most important thing to him, pointing out the last team he played for that won a title of any significance was in a Babe Ruth League.

"I've never won before, and it's very important," said Bonds, who has been a flop in the postseason with six hits in 29 at-bats and no homers in two divisional playoff series and 13 hits in 68 at-bats and one homer in three league championship series.

Bonds had never hit more than 49 homers in a season before this year, but his consistency has put him among the career leaders in that department; he was eighth with 561 before Tuesday's game -- two behind Reggie Jackson.

"I'd like to go to the Hall of Fame," Bonds said. "One big explosion doesn't do anything. Longevity is the key, that's more impressive."

Bonds' 67th homer was his first this season in eight games at Dodger Stadium, where he had only three hits in 30 at-bats before Tuesday. In six games against the Dodgers at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco, Bonds is 4-for-22 with two homers.

"They've just gotten me out," he said. "You're always going to have one team you have difficulty dealing with. It just seems when I play them, it's not a fun time for me."

That was before he connected off James Baldwin and the Giants won.

Should Bonds reach 71 before leaving Los Angeles, there won't be a delay in the game or a post-game celebration on the field, if the Dodgers have anything to say about it.

"It's a tremendous feat if he's able to accomplish it," senior vice president Derrick Hall said. "The entire world is watching. But we don't want to stop the game, that's the important thing.

"We'll work with major league baseball to provide them with an ample setting."