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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Even though Mike Hampton is one of baseball's best pitchers, he stepped softly around Barry Bonds. Hampton allowed five hits over seven strong innings as the Colorado Rockies snapped a 13-game losing streak in San Francisco with a 6-1 victory Friday night. Hampton (7-1) was dominant and confident in winning for the sixth time in seven starts -- but against Bonds, he thought caution was a good idea. Hampton slowed Bonds' homer binge by walking the Giants' slugger twice -- once on four pitches -- and retiring him on a fly to deep center in the fourth. "Luckily, he didn't have many guys on base when I faced him, and I could go after him," Hampton said of Bonds. "He's one of the hottest hitters in the NL. You're not going to lay a fastball down the middle against him." A day after hitting his 519th homer -- his 10th in eight games -- Bonds, who didn't speak to reporters, remained two homers shy of Willie McCovey and Ted Williams on the career list. Everything else was fairly easy for Hampton, who let just two runners reach third base until Eric Davis' sixth-inning double drove in Bonds with the Giants' only run. "It's going to be hard for us to lose when (Hampton) is throwing like that," said Todd Walker, who drove in two runs on his 28th birthday. "He's the best athlete I've ever seen." Right-hander Juan Acevedo rescued the Rockies from an eighth-inning jam as Colorado won for the first time in eight tries at 2-year-old Pacific Bell Park, and for the first time in San Francisco since April 2, 1999. Hampton, who struck out four and also drove in a run in the seventh, improved to 10-0 in 16 regular season appearances against the Giants. In his last trip to Pac Bell with the Mets, Hampton took the defeat in the only game San Francisco won against New York in the division series last season. Colorado manager Buddy Bell said he removed Hampton after he strained his left groin in the seventh, but Hampton said the injury was minor. "(Hampton) is just able to get it done when he really has to," Bell said. "He does just about everything you need. Any time he plays, it's like he's playing in the backyard. Every game, it seems like he does something special." Reliever Mike Myers, whose primary responsibility is to handle big hitters, allowed Bonds' eighth-inning single, which loaded the bases with no outs and extended Bonds' hitting streak to a career-high 14 games. But Acevedo got Benito Santiago to pop up and then struck out Eric Davis and Russ Davis. Acevedo, pitching for the second consecutive day after nearly a month on the disabled list, pumped his fist as he left the field. "We didn't have a bunch of scoring opportunities," San Francisco manager Dusty Baker said. "Hampton was dealing and mixing up his pitches very well." While the Rockies' ace continued to sizzle, the Giants' No. 1 starter continued to struggle. Livan Hernandez (3-7) lost for the seventh time in his last 10 starts despite finding his groove after a shaky first inning. Colorado got three runs in the first when Todd Helton hit a two-run double and Walker had a run-scoring single. Hernandez pitched out of the jam and retired 16 of the next 17 hitters, but he couldn't match Hampton's dominance. "They had two or three broken bats," Hernandez said. "Not too many were hit hard, but they were hit to the right spot. I want to continue to pitch like that." The Giants, who won the opener of the four-game series Thursday night, lost for the seventh time in 10 games. San Francisco's five-game home winning streak also ended. Game notesBonds and struggling National League MVP Jeff Kent swapped spots in the lineup, with Kent hitting third and Bonds batting cleanup. ... Though fans at Pac Bell Park rose to their feet in anticipation whenever Bonds stepped to the plate, he couldn't add another to his total. Many fans in the sellout crowd timed their trips to the concession stands and the restrooms around Bonds' first three at-bats. ... Struggling Rockies reliever Bobby Chouinard cleared waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Colorado Springs. ... Because the Giants added additional seats to Pac Bell before the game, the sellout crowd of 41,341 was the largest in the stadium's history. ... NL batting leader Rich Aurilia's only hit was an eighth-inning single for San Francisco.  Send this story to a friend
| RECAPS Baltimore 7 Texas 6
Colorado 6
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