updated 5:19 p.m. ET April 5, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO - Barry Bonds took a seat in the dugout after his first home run trot of 2007 and hardly looked winded.

His legs feel great, he’s completely healthy — and ready to chase Hammerin’ Hank.

Bonds moved a step closer to Hank Aaron’s home run record Wednesday night, hitting his 735th homer in the first inning of the San Francisco Giants’ 5-3 loss to the San Diego Padres, who got a tiebreaking two-run homer from Adrian Gonzalez in the eighth.

Bonds sent a 2-2 pitch from right-hander Chris Young into the first row of seats in left-center for a solo shot and a 1-0 Giants lead, pulling the slugger within 21 of passing Aaron’s 755.

“It’s not a countdown yet, not close enough yet,” Bonds said. “When it’s about 750, that’s when we can count down. Not any time soon. Hope it’s not the end of September. You can all leave and come back then.”

Moments after the homer, “735” flashed across the new high-definition scoreboard in center field and Bonds pointed to his daughter, Aisha, and Sue Burns, the wife of late Giants ownership partner Harmon Burns who was honored on opening day with a moment of silence.

Bonds also became the San Francisco leader for runs scored at 1,481, passing his godfather, Willie Mays’ 1,480. Bonds waved and tipped his cap when he came out to play defense in the top of the second.

Then in the third, he made a running catch with his glove outstretched on Brian Giles’ shallow fly along the left-field line, and Bonds’ momentum carried him all the way to the entrance in front of the San Francisco dugout. The 42-year-old slugger immediately dropped into a squat to catch his breath, then headed down the tunnel to recover from some tightness.

“That’s not that encouraging,” he said of the athletic snag. “I don’t want to do anything dumb. If there was another one, it would have dropped. I got a good jump. ... My legs are fine. It’s my age that’s bothering me. Just a long run for somebody my age. I got a little tight out there. That was it. Nothing major.”

Bonds grounded out to second in the third — to chants of “Barry! Barry!” — flied out to center in the fifth and struck out swinging in the seventh.

Young became the 435th pitcher to surrender a homer to Bonds, who has hit 86 against the Padres for his most against any club. Bonds’ previous homer came 193 days earlier, on Sept. 23, 2006, against the Milwaukee Brewers. They repeated his shot and his trot on the big screen after the inning ended.

“Fastball away, just on the plate, but Barry is Barry,” Padres skipper Bud Black said. “He’s on the plate and if the ball is elevated a little bit he still has opposite power in this park.”

Bonds last homered in the Giants’ waterfront ballpark on Sept. 13 in a 9-8 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

Manager Bruce Bochy appreciated Bonds’ defensive hustle.

“He made a great effort catching that ball, put us in the lead, and that’s what you’re hoping for,” Bochy said. “We just couldn’t hold on there.”

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