Bonds faces stress test on the road

SAN FRANCISCO -- Take it from his hitting coach: Barry Bonds needs to chill.

Two home runs shy of seizing a title only Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth have owned since the 1920s, Bonds resumes his chase for the all-time home run record tonight in Los Angeles under unusual stress, some of it self-imposed.

"Half the problem is that he is trying so hard," said Giants hitting coach Joe Lefebvre, who played in the majors for the Yankees, Padres, and Phillies after he starred at Concord (N.H.) High and Eckerd College in Florida. "It's hard enough to get a hit in the big leagues, let alone hit a home run."

Bonds badly wanted to break Aaron's career record of 755 in San Francisco last weekend after he cracked his 754th home run Friday off Florida's Rick Vanden Hurk in the first inning of a 12-10 victory over the Marlins at AT&T Park. But Bonds had just one hit (a pop fly that originally was ruled an error) in seven at-bats and walked five times the rest of the weekend, forcing him to take his quest to unfriendly turf.

The Giants play their archrival, the Dodgers, at Chavez Ravine tonight, tomorrow, and Thursday, then face the Padres in a three-game series over the weekend at Petco Park in San Diego. Bonds is expected to play at least four of the games, though manager Bruce Bochy had yet to reveal his plans.

The Giants, mired in the cellar of the National League West, were off yesterday.

"We're still trying to win ball games," Bochy said Sunday after an 8-5 loss to the Marlins. "We'll play the game the way it should be played and I'll play Barry as I normally would."

Though Bonds appeared particularly overanxious at the plate Sunday, Lefebvre said he recently has seen an improvement in the slugger's approach. Bonds, who turned 43 last Tuesday, is hitting only .193 in July with four home runs and 11 RBIs. He has 20 homers this season. "Lately, he has been swinging the bat better, thinking about hitting balls hard rather than hitting balls far," Lefebvre said.

Yet age and infirmities have taken a toll on Bonds, who continues to say he might play another year. He has not ruled out reaching still another goal: 800 home runs.

"There's no question he shows his age at times," said Lefebvre. "That's understandable. When he gets his rest, his swing is a lot fresher and cleaner."

Lefebvre reviews Bonds's tapes daily and constantly is available to him, though he generally lets Bonds seek his counsel, which the slugger did recently.

Lefebvre, whose association with Bonds dates to the playing days of Bonds's father, Bobby, has been the Giants' hitting coach since 2003. He was their first base coach in 2002, when they went to the World Series and lost in seven games to the Angels.

"The things I saw in the video were recurring in terms of good swings and bad swings," Lefebvre said. "When we put the good swings and bad swings side by side on the video, he was able to see it immediately. He made his own adjustments from there."

Lefebvre, who lives in Hooksett, N.H., is a boyhood friend of Giants general manager Brian Sabean. They played together on youth teams in Concord and in high school for the late Warren Doane. Sabean hired Lefebvre as a minor league coach in 1996, Sabean's first year as the Giants' GM.

When Lefebvre returns to New Hampshire, he has grown accustomed to fans criticizing Bonds for his alleged steroid use.

"I ignore them," he said, "because I see him every day and I marvel at his consistency and his ability to maintain his swing over his career."

Bonds will not have to wait as long to equal Aaron's record as Aaron waited to match Ruth's after he pulled within one homer of the Babe's mark of 714 on Sept. 29, 1973. With only one game remaining in the season, Aaron went homerless and needed to wait until the next April to catch Ruth, who had reigned as the home run king since the 1920s.

Still, Bonds is eager to complete the quest. But hopefully not too eager, Lefebvre said. The coach wants to see him finish the job.

"I'm seeing something that I'll probably never see again," he said. "It's been an amazing run."