Strapped by pain in his thrice surgically repaired right knee, the Giants slugger remained in the clubhouse until the last minute before taking batting practice at PETCO Park on Tuesday night prior to a crucial 9-6 loss to the first-place Padres.

But when the game started, the lefty swinger went to the opposite field in the opening inning with the second offering from Padres right-hander Adam Eaton, tucking his fifth homer of the season and the 708th of his career neatly into the left-field seats.

The three-run shot pulled Bonds to within six of Babe Ruth's hallowed mark of 714 and to within 47 of Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755. It also snapped an 0-for-11 streak and was his first homer since he went deep in back-to-back games last Tuesday and Wednesday against the Nationals at RFK Stadium.

"He gave me a fastball to hit, and I just went out and got it," said Bonds, who was 1-for-3 on the night with two walks, one of them intentional.

Asked how he felt after playing a complete game for the first time since his return, Bonds simply said: "Sore."

With five games to go after Tuesday night's tilt, it seems evident that the Bambino's mark will have to wait until next year. And the Giants still retain a sliver of hope in their quest for the National League West title against the 78-79 Padres, who snapped a three-game losing streak.

The Giants, at 74-83, trail by four games with five remaining. The Padres' magic number was reduced to two, meaning that a victory over San Francisco in either of the final two games of the series on Wednesday or Thursday night would give San Diego its fourth division title in the club's 37-year history and its first since 1998.

The hard-charging Giants have won 10 of the 15 games since Bonds was activated from the disabled list on Sept. 12 in San Francisco against the Padres. Bonds missed the first 142 games of the season.

"It's not over yet," Bonds said about the division race. "Stranger things have happened in this game."

The homer was his second at PETCO Park, which opened in downtown San Diego last season, and his 81st against the Padres, his most against any team. A whopping 39 of them came at Qualcomm/Jack Murphy Stadium, the Padres' former yard in Mission Valley, marking the most Bonds has hit in any road stadium. Evidently, Bonds misses the edifice that was once lovingly called "The Murph."

"It's tough to hit homers here," Bonds said about the new ballpark just blocks from the bay. "The ball dies."

Tuesday night's shot nestled about 370 feet away into the lower left-field bleachers below the mammoth scoreboard and adjacent to the Western Metal Supply Co. Building, a red-bricked San Diego relic that is part of the ballpark's unique architecture.

"It was a fastball away," Eaton said about the 1-0 pitch. "A good pitch to everybody else."

The homer gave the Giants a short-lived 3-0 lead, one that dissolved when starter Brett Tomko gave it all back in the bottom of the first inning. Asked what his mindset was going into his first at-bat, Bonds said he was simply trying to put the ball in play.

"I just didn't want to make another out," said Bonds, after going 0-for-5 in Monday night's come-from-behind 3-2 Giants victory. "But that's baseball. Sometimes you go into hitting streaks, and sometimes you don't."

Bonds might not have even played on Tuesday night had the game not been so meaningful.

During the second inning on Monday, Bonds had to sprint from his position in left field toward the gap to snare a drive off the bat of Xavier Nady.

Bonds tried to brake himself after making the play instead of winding down in a trot, and felt bone crack against bone in his arthritic right knee, he said, adding that the pain shot down his leg and was still reverberating a day later. Bonds had surgery on Jan. 31, March 17 and May 2 on the knee, and spent more than two months rehabilitating it in a Los Angeles clinic before returning to the team in early September.

"It was an accident," he said about the Monday play. "My leg locked and I'm still feeling it."

Bonds spent a long period of time before Tuesday night's game icing the knee, which he has said is nowhere near 100 percent.

Later, he scored from first on a Moises Alou double with none out in the third inning, stepping on the plate standing up just a split-second before the relay throw arrived. This time, he allowed his momentum to carry him to the backstop.

"I'm trying to run low under the radar," he said. "Low to the ground. Not going to make that mistake again."

It was just another way of spinning his legendary magic.