LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers manager Jim Tracy was a coach with Montreal in 1998 when the Expos challenged Mark McGwire the final weekend of the season and manager Felipe Alou talked about developing pitchers, not cowards. It's a different situation this time around, and not just because the stadiums are not sold out and the fans are showering Barry Bonds with jeers, not cheers.

There also is this little thing called the division race.

The Bonds Watch

Up to bat 1st inning, one out, nobody on, vs. Chan Ho Park. Four pitches, all out of the strike zone. 3rd inning, one out, nobody on, vs. Park. Two balls, a foul, a ball, another foul, and ball four. 5th inning, two out, nobody on, vs. Park. Grounds out on first pitch. 7th inning, one out, runners on first and second, vs. Jesse Orosco. Taps first pitch in front of plate, tagged out by catcher. 8th inning, two out, runner on second, vs. Matt Herges. Grounds to second on first pitch. Overheard "You know what Don Drysdale would say if a manager told him to walk a batter? He'd say, 'Why waste four pitches? Let me just hit him with the first pitch.' " -- ex-Dodgers pitcher Don Newcombe, while discussing the subject of whether Los Angeles should pitch around Bonds. Around the ballpark Two hours before he was to begin a game with a realistic chance of tying Mark McGwire's home run record, Bonds was in the clubhouse by his locker. Make that lying by his locker, his eyes closed and his head on a pillow of towels. If he was sleeping, he truly has remarkable powers of concentration -- music thundered out of the clubhouse speakers the entire time. Up next Wednesday, at Los Angeles, vs. Terry Mulholland. Bonds vs. Mulholland: 16-for-52 ( .308), 7 HR

Unlike in 1998 when the Expos were headed toward another awful finish and McGwire's Cardinals were just trying to reach .500, Tracy's Dodgers and Bonds' Giants are old rivals separated by two games in the National League West and still competing for the division title.

All that alters the etiquette to Home Run Derby considerably.

"If it's a blowout game one way or the other, from a game purity standpoint, it wouldn't be right to pitch around him," Tracy said. "Under those situations, you have an obligation to challenge him and get him out. But if it's a situation where it will have an impact on the pennant race and we're trying to win the game, that's a totally different situation."

In other words, Los Angeles can't afford to lose a game on a Bonds home run as they did the first game of the series.

In a game that began as a tight one and then looked like it would be a blowout before finally ending in a 9-5 Los Angeles victory Tuesday night, the Dodgers pitched Bonds carefully, walking him twice and retiring him three times on easy ground balls. Bonds not only didn't add to his home run total of 67, he didn't get the ball out of the infield.

Dodgers starter Chan Ho Park didn't give Bonds much to swing at. With one out, one run in and nobody on base in the first inning, Park walked Bonds on four pitches. With one out and nobody on in the third, Park again pitched carefully, eventually walking Bonds on a 3-2 pitch. With two out and nobody on in the fifth, he retired Bonds on a groundout on the first pitch of the at-bat.

Facing lefty reliever Jesse Orosco in the seventh, Bonds grounded out on a ball that barely went 10 feet in front of the plate. He also grounded out against right-hander Matt Herges in the eighth inning.

"Believe me, I respect what Barry Bonds can do as much as everyone else but I can't think about what he's doing," Orosco said. "I can't be out there thinking, 'I'm going to be victim No. 68 or 69 or 70.' I have to make my pitches and get him out.

"I know what he's doing is amazing, but at the same time, my job is to get him out."

Los Angeles fans cheered Bonds when he hit his 67th home run Monday night but those who showed up -- there were large sections of empty seats -- greeted him with a mixture of boos and cheers for his first at-bat Tuesday. That gradually turned into solid jeers with each progressive at-bat while chants of "Barry sucks! Barry sucks!" punctuated the night.

Bonds left the clubhouse without speaking to reporters, which McGwire also did on occasion in 1998 when the Cardinals did not win and he did not homer.

Giants manager Dusty Baker said from what he's observed, a team's winning percentage doesn't affect how it pitches to Bonds. Usually, it's more a matter of how an individual pitcher has fared against Bonds in the past.

"One thing people lose sight of is no one wants to appear to be afraid or intimidated by a hitter," Baker said. "They don't want to look like they're running from him or not pitching to him."

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.