Bonds Takes Day Off, but Giants End Slide

SAN FRANCISCO —  For a night on McCovey Cove, all the numbers remained the same, from the 713 on the right-center field brick to the 18 rubber chickens dangling near the right-field line.

After drawing to within one home run of Babe Ruth the night before in Philadelphia, Barry Bonds never left the dugout during the San Francisco Giants’ 7-5 victory over the Houston Astros on Monday at AT&T; Park, the first of a seven-game homestand for the Giants.

He is expected to play tonight, when the Giants open a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs.

More than three decades after Hank Aaron passed Ruth, the coming days, and Bonds’ coming at-bats, will be linked to that event.

Cub Manager Dusty Baker hit behind Aaron in the Atlanta Brave order on April 8, 1974, at Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium, so he was on deck when Aaron became the all-time home-run leader.

And if Bonds fails to pass Ruth against the Cubs, then he’ll have the weekend series against the Dodgers, against whom Aaron hit his 715th.

Bonds has a knack for hitting the round and significant home-run numbers -- 500, 660 (tying Willie Mays), 661 and 700 -- in San Francisco, where they love him as a ballplayer and generally ignore the rest.

Asked in Philadelphia if surpassing Ruth would make him the better player, Bonds had said, “I don’t know yet. But, the numbers speak for themselves.”

Meanwhile, the Giants have sagged under the strain of the Bonds saga.

They were swept over the weekend in Philadelphia and had lost four in a row and seven of eight before Monday night.

They called team meetings to talk about playing better, and team meetings to talk about supporting Bonds, and team meetings just to spend quiet time with each other.

Still, they played themselves from a half-game out of first to 4 1/2 games out, from second in the NL West to last, and along the way lost Moises Alou, their most productive hitter, to the disabled list. Right fielder Randy Winn and second baseman Kevin Frandsen left Monday night’s game because of injuries.

The Giants played Sunday night in Philadelphia, and then flew to San Francisco, where the team plane landed about 3:30 a.m. Then they scored seven runs in 4 1/3 innings against Houston ace Roy Oswalt.