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  Saturday, Jun. 3 4:10pm ET
Stairs' homer trumps Bonds' pair
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Matt Stairs took a different approach and it worked out just fine.

Stairs hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning and drove in four runs as the Oakland Athletics overcame a pair of homers by Barry Bonds to beat the San Francisco Giants 9-7 Saturday.

Barry Bonds
Bonds, modeling a 1911 Giants replica uniform, hits one of his two homers against the A's.

Bonds homered in the first and fifth innings, giving him the major league lead with 22, one more than Mark McGwire. Bonds has two multihomer games this season and 44 in his career, tied for 12th on that list with Willie McCovey and Mike Schmidt.

With 467 homers, Bonds is 20th on the career list, eight behind Stan Musial and Willie Stargell.

"It's not hard to get pumped up when Barry Bonds hits two home runs, and Jason Giambi is hitting all those home runs," said Stairs, whose seventh-inning homer off Alan Embree (0-1) was his ninth of the year but first off a left-hander.

With San Francisco leading 5-4, Olmedo Saenz walked leading off the seventh. John Jaha, playing in his first major league game since April 24, singled with two outs and Stairs hit the go-ahead drive.

"I just went up and let it go," he said. "Forget about mechanics and just put us on the board. I had a little more confidence facing left-handers while before I'd walk up to the plate looking over my shoulder to see if I was getting pinch hit for."

Jeff Tam walked Ramon Martinez with the bases loaded in the eighth as the Giants closed within a run, but Randy Velarde hit a two-run homer in the bottom half off John Johnstone to make it 9-6.

"It's tough to come back after Velarde's home run," said Giants' manager Dusty Baker. "We didn't get a lot of opportunities to score. They shut us down and they got the hits and walks when they needed them."

Doug Jones (1-1) pitched 1 1/3 innings of hitless relief, and Jason Isringhausen got three outs for his 13th save in 16 chances, allowing an RBI double to Jeff Kent.

Oakland, which won Friday's opener of the interleague series, extended its winning streak to four.

A's manager Art Howe presented the lineup card dressed in a suit and straw hat in honor of Connie Mack, selected as the Athletics' manager of the century Saturday. Both teams wore replicas of their uniforms in 1911, when the Philadelphia A's beat the New York Giants 4-3 in the World Series.

Oakland's Tim Hudson, unbeaten in eight starts since April 20 in Cleveland, allowed five runs and seven hits in six innings. Bonds' first homer ended Hudson's 16-inning scoreless streak.

Giants starter Kirk Rueter, winless in seven starts since beating Arizona on April 22, allowed four runs, five hits and five walks in 4 2/3 innings.

"I just got behind too much," Rueter said. "Things didn't go my way."

Martinez, playing because of an injury to Rich Aurilia, had three RBI, including a solo homer in the fifth and an RBI single in the sixth.

Saenz and Ben Grieve each drove in runs with a sacrifice flies, and Stairs and Miguel Tejada each singled home a run in the fourth.

Game notes
Giants 1B J.T. Snow was scratched because of food poisoning. ... Giants C Doug Mirabelli was scratched because of irritation in his right eye and was taken to a hospital. ... Jaha, who had been sidelined with a left shoulder strain, was activated before the game. ... Oakland 3B Adam Piatt was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League. ... Giants OF Ellis Burks was held out of the lineup with sore knees. ... Aurilia missed his third game due to a strained left hamstring.

 


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