Barry Bonds finally hit his first home run of June. He hit a 2 run home run in the 4th inning to tie the game vs the Blue Jays at 3. The Giants would score another run to take a 4-3 lead which they would hold onto the rest of the game. The home run was Bonds' 13th of the season and 747th of his career, leaving him just 8 behind Hank Aaron.

Giants fans (like myself) are hopeful that this is a sign of things to come and that Bonds is ready to go on a hot streak. The Giants offense has been anemic during Bonds' slump.

The Blue Jays became believers pretty quickly. They intentionally walked Bonds the next time he came up even though he was leading off the inning.

How bad has Bonds' home run slump been? Before tonight's home run he had hit only one home run in his last 77 at bats and was on a streak of 33 at bats without a home run. Obviously one homer isn't going to erase all of that. Bonds needs to get on track soon for the Giants to have any chance of hanging around in the playoff chase.

Can he do it? Can he hit home runs consistently again or was his hot streak in April a fluke? The record for home runs for a player 42 years or older (Bonds is 42 and turning 43 in July) is 18 by Carlton Fisk in 1991. Sometimes I forget just how old Bonds is. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect him to be able to perform up to his old standards?

Matt Morris was the Giants pitcher tonight. I recently wrote about the great season he's having and he gave another strong example of that tonight. He pitched a complete game tonight allowing 7 hits and 3 runs with 4 strike outs and just 1 walk. He's now 7-3 with a 2.56 ERA. This was his 3rd complete game of the season and his second in a row.

Labels: Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants