Bonds hits another homer, Benitez looking good
With Barry Bonds hitting homers and a healthy Armando Benitez throwing strikes, the San Francisco Giants are starting to get excited about the season.
Bonds hit his fourth home run of spring training Friday and Benitez pitched his third scoreless inning, sending San Francisco to an 11-7 victory over the Colorado Rockies in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"We worked today how it could go," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We're getting ready for the year now."
Bonds' latest home run off Byung-Hyun Kim wasn't nearly as memorable as his previous one. The slugger connected off Kim in their first matchup since Bonds passed Babe Ruth with his 715th homer last May.
With the Rockies hoping to showcase Kim for a potential trade, the Giants battered the right-hander for eight runs in 4 2-3 innings. That drove Kim's spring ERA up to 9.00 in 13 innings.
Randy Winn homered and had three hits for San Francisco, including an RBI single. Omar Vizquel had a bases-loaded triple in the second before Bonds stepped to bat. He hit a high fly to center that carried well and just cleared the fence for his second homer in two games.
"I've seen enough of them. I knew that was going out," Bochy said. "His ball keeps carrying because he's so strong."
Benitez, working his way back from last season's knee injuries, allowed only a single to Jud Thigpen and ended the game by striking out Jeff Baker.
Even though Baker was the only one of the four batters in the inning expected to be on Colorado's opening-day roster, Benitez had his best control of the spring, throwing his slider consistently for strikes.
After blowing eight save chances last year, when he was booed constantly at home, Benitez hopes a healthy season will show those fans how good he can be.
"They signed me here because they know what I can do. They didn't sign me because of my beautiful face," Benitez said. "Nobody wants to be hurt. I had bad luck."
Even though the team looked into trading Benitez in the offseason, Bochy said he expects the right-hander to be his closer when the season starts.
"There's no point in getting distracted with what happened last year," Bochy said. "That's last year. This is a new year. That's how he has to feel about it. He feels good and he's healthy. That's the biggest part of it."
Giants starter Matt Cain allowed four runs -- two earned -- and five hits in four innings, lowering his spring ERA to 9.24. He hoped to go five innings but needed 73 pitches to get through four, ending his day early.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
