APSAN DIEGO - As Barry Bonds slouched in a chair in the middle of the visitors’ clubhouse and spoke with reporters, 10 policemen and numerous security guards mustered outside to make sure the slugger had a safe exit from Petco Park.
So ended the first road trip of the season for Bonds and the San Francisco Giants, who beat the San Diego Padres 3-1 on Wednesday night as Matt Morris made a strong debut.
“Matt Morris pitched a great game, guys got some key hits and I didn’t really have much to do with it,” Bonds said. “I just wish we scored earlier and not put that much pressure on him.”
Bonds reached base three times without getting a hit and scored once.
Although Bonds was booed every time he came to bat, he took less grief from the fans than he did on Monday, when he was booed mercilessly and had a syringe thrown at him.
A security guard stood on top of the Giants’ dugout after each half-inning on a cold Wednesday night, when there were 20,000 fewer fans in the stands than on opening day. The Padres closed a standing-room-only area just beyond the left-field corner because of what one team executive said was unruly fan behavior on Monday.
Bonds said the only distraction to him was the media, although several in the scrum that surrounded him after the game were associated with his cable reality show.
Morris held the Padres to five hits and a run in 6 1-3 innings. Shawn Estes, a former Giants pitcher, lost his Padres debut by allowing three runs in the sixth even though the Giants hit the ball out of the infield just once.
San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez had three hits, including a homer leading off the seventh.
Omar Vizquel slapped Estes’ first pitch of the sixth into left field. Ray Durham’s comebacker hit the front of Estes’ left cleat and bounced into the air for an infield single.
Bonds walked to load the bases, with the left-handed Estes throwing several inside pitches.
Estes fielded Moises Alou’s two-bouncer and probably could have thrown out Vizquel at the plate. He appeared to hesitate, but said he couldn’t get a grip on the ball, and Alou was safe with an RBI infield single.
“I wish I could have that ball back that Alou hit because I think we would have gotten the guy at home if I would have been able to get the handle on it,” Estes said. “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to and it led to three runs.”
Bonds reached base leading off the second and fourth innings, and was stranded each time.
Estes hit Bonds with a pitch on his right elbow guard in the second.
“There’s not a whole lot of room for error in there,” Estes said. “You hit him; if you don’t, you have about six inches of air to work with. If you don’t get it in there, he hits it really hard somewhere.”
Bonds reached in the fourth on a throwing error by rookie second baseman Josh Barfield. With the Padres playing the “Bonds shift,” where all the fielders move to their left, Barfield fielded the slugger’s one-hopper in shallow right, but overthrew first baseman Gonzalez.
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