Giants manager Dusty Baker was viewed with something approaching incredulity when he left Barry Bonds off his lineup card for Friday’s game with the Cubs.
Baker had his reasons, most notably a desire to keep Bonds fresh for the Giants’ three-team race with Los Angeles and Arizona in the NL West. The Giants were coming from Cincinnati, where it had been brutally hot, and thunderstorms delayed their arrival in Chicago until early Friday morning.
“Barry was dead tired anyway, and we got in late,” Baker said. “You’ve got to save a certain amount of fuel.”
Bonds hit his 49th home run in the Giants’ 6-4 victory over Cincinnati on Thursday, the Giants’ 115th game. He turned 37 last month and a day off after a night game has pretty much been his routine all season.
But each game he misses reduces his chances of eclipsing Mark McGwire’s three-year-old record of 70 home runs. For as ardently as Bonds disavows talk of the pursuit, it has been one of the most compelling stories of the season . . . everywhere but the Giants’ clubhouse.
“You’ve got to think of the long run,” Baker said. “I’m not going to use him up in the middle of August when we’ve got six weeks left and we’re in a pennant race.”
McGwire appeared in 155 of the Cardinals’ 162 games when he set the record in 1998, at 34. Bonds has appeared in 107 of the Giants’ 116 games.
“It’s a lot different for Big Mac to go out and stand at first base than it is for Barry to play the outfield and run the bases like he does,” Baker said.
Cubs manager Don Baylor was criticized in some circles for removing Sammy Sosa after seven innings of Thursday’s 14-5 loss to Colorado in blistering heat. Sosa, who had hit three home runs, was denied an opportunity to try for a fourth.
“I’ll bet Sammy wasn’t complaining,” Baker said. “Two innings off in heat like we’ve been having can feel like two days off this time of year.”
Bonds didn’t make an appearance in Friday’s 9-3 Giants loss, but the Cubs can expect to see him Saturday. “After a day off, he usually comes back and scalds the ball,” Baker said.
