Bonds, Bonds, Bonds #668 baby (Bobby Bonds with 332 career HRs + Barry Bonds' 668 career HRs = 1,000).

Paul Lo Duca on intentionally walking Bonds...
"As a fan, you want to say to your grandkid, I saw the best baseball player -- maybe ever -- and I saw him hit an 800-foot home run," L.A. catcher Paul Lo Duca told Dodgers reporters. "But we come to the ballpark to win. If that's what it takes for us to win, we'll do it."

Today was another horrible loss to the reigning World Championship Florida Marlins at SBC Park (Final 4-3, Marlins), but boy was I glad to hear about Bonds 2-2 afternoon (Single, Intentional Walk, HR, Walk)! I love seeing him get pitches.

I was at last night's game, the last in a 3-series game vs. ATL and it was just incredible to witness how our opponents approach Barry's game. Some advances, right before or during Barry's AB, freeing up a base, and there's no doubt about it - no questions asked - he is intentionally walked. Unbelievable.

Later in the game, by sheer luck, a friend of a friend was able to hook us up with two seats down in the Field Club level behind home plate - sec. 112, row J, seat 10 - that's where I was... Absolutley different perspective down there. The Braves' Wise and our own Neifi Perez were dwarfed by the Super-sized likes of Andruw Jones and Barry Bonds. Marcus Giles looked even smaller. It's way different actually hearing the ball hit the catcher's mitt, hearing the crack of the bat when contact is made. My view was lookin right down the 3B line - a well pulled ball by a Rightie, which ordinarily appears to be a straight line-drive, actually works off the spin of the pitch and has a pretty significant curvepath, before it gets toward 3B. Pretty trippy. I can only dream of experiencing that again.

A few observations: Tomko looked good, real good. He pitched into the 7th, facing three batters in that inning. ATL's DeWayne Wise hit a double to right, scoring a run following Michael Hessman's double to right. Then Rafael Furcal hits a rocket single towards Barry and Hessman advances to 3B. At this exact point, I was at the edge of my seat, convinced that Felipe Alou could not only hear me, but sense my pleading heart, to please please please pull Tomko NOW! Remember, at this point, there are still ZERO Outs in the inning, and we're "ONLY" up 10-4 at the moment (usually, that would be a real good cushion to work with, but I know better from what I've experienced so far, this season!); I swear it felt like eternity just watching and waiting for Alou to move that foot from the top step of the dugout onto the field - I was obsessed with his foot movement.

At long last, movement on to the field. I immediately stood up to give Tomko props - those around me said he didn't 'deserve' a standing ovation, but I was pretty enthusiastic on applauding Alou's intuition and workin quickly to get Tomko out of that bad situation.

Tyler Walker was brought in from the bullpen, and he looked good, nice and solid - confident on the mound. He faced only two batters, but they were good battles - he struck out Marcus Giles swinging.

After that, Scott Eyre was brought in to face J.D. Drew - buh bye (flyout to right). Felix Rodriguez and Matt Herges closed it out (Herges gave up a single to Furcal, who scored a run off of Mark DeRosa's following double). Ahhh, a win nonetheless... they're so rare and precious right now.

Tomorrow will be Kevin Correia on the hill vs. Alameda's own Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins - I predict it will be a good battle. I'm still not too confident in Correia's stuff - he seems to get shaken up easily. But... when he's on, he is ON.