Bonds Is Kept at Bay by L.A.

SAN FRANCISCO — The ornery Brad Penny showed up Friday night, scowling at the specially marked baseballs he had to use against Barry Bonds and determined not to let the San Francisco Giants slugger make history against him.

Penny worked five scoreless innings even though he was bothered by tightness in his lower back that became progressively worse. Leading off the sixth was none other than Bonds -- one home run short of tying Babe Ruth for second place on the career list.

Change pitchers? The decision could have been Penny wise but mound foolish. The Dodger bullpen has been maddeningly erratic.

Manager Grady Little breathed deeply and called for left-hander Joe Beimel. Bonds lined to right field and the Dodgers breezed to a 6-1 victory before a sellout crowd at AT&T; Park.

Beimel went 2 2/3 innings, his longest stint of the season, and Takashi Saito finished the job by striking out three in 1 1/3 innings. Bonds was 0 for 3 with an unintentional walk.

“The difference in the game was what [Beimel] gave us in the middle innings,” Little said.

In addition to besting Bonds in the sixth, Beimel got him to pop up in the eighth with a runner on first. The ball was dropped by second baseman Jeff Kent, who threw to second for a force out. Bonds started toward the dugout when he hit the ball, then turned and ran when he saw it fall, barely beating the return throw from shortstop Rafael Furcal to avoid a double play.

Not every veteran showed his age, however. Dodger center fielder Kenny Lofton, 38, drove in the first three runs, had two hits and stole a base. The Dodgers pounded Matt Morris for five runs and eight hits in seven innings to reach .500 for the second time in three days.

Penny (3-1) benefited from a three-run third inning and single runs in the fourth and fifth.

“You could tell by the grimacing in the dugout that he wasn’t himself,” Little said. “We talked between every inning.”

Said Penny about coming out of the game: “I don’t want to miss my next start.”

This game took longer than normal to get going because of a 45-minute pregame ceremony celebrate the birthday of Willie Mays -- who ranks fourth on the home run list with 660. Several former Giants took part, and the fete ended with the current team flooding the infield to help Mays, who turned 75 on May 6, cut a cake.

With Bonds not talking for the third day in a row, the swell of national reporters moved to the Dodger clubhouse to probe the mind of Kent, former Giant and perpetual Bonds nemesis.

Kent discussed, of all things, a book he’d read, “Game of Shadows,” which laid out details of Bonds’ alleged steroid use.

Was it a page turner?

“Considering it was the only book I read cover to cover in the last year, I guess so,” Kent said.

Kent spoke generally about how steroids have tarnished baseball, but was careful not to accuse Bonds. Asked what Bonds’ legacy would be, he said, “Whatever he’ll make it.”

As for the larger topic, Kent said, “I’m very pleased with the way Major League Baseball and the Players’ Association came together for a policy that makes a difference. But it doesn’t make a complete difference.”

He isn’t satisfied that the testing procedures are foolproof.

“But that’s not a big knock,” he said. “We’ve come a long way to get drugs out of the game.”

Errors are something else altogether. Furcal committed two, but made amends for botching an easy ground ball in the second inning by keying the three-run Dodger third. His single with runners on second and third scored Willy Aybar, who led off the inning with a walk. After Furcal stole his ninth base of the year, Lofton drove in Russell Martin and Furcal with a single.