Barry Bonds reached his only personal goal when he hit his 50th homer on Saturday. There's no telling how far he can go from here.

"Next stop, 60," San Francisco manager Dusty Baker said. "What do you want me to say, next stop 51?"

How about 70? "Talk about that when he gets to 60," answered Baker.

	Barry Bonds has hit five homers in his first nine games in August.

Had Mark McGwire not beaten Roger Maris by nine homers, sports writers from around the world would already have made their plans to follow the Giants the last two weeks of the season. Logic says 70 is too far out there, but the reality is it's not out of the question for Bonds to hit 20 homers in the Giants' remaining 44 games. He's currently on pace to finish with 69.

Bonds hasn't gone two games without a homer in August. He's got five homers and four doubles in nine games, raising his slugging percentage to .815. If he doesn't have a prolonged slump, he will shatter Rogers Hornsby's National League record of .756.

Bonds needs two more homers to match Willie Mays' franchise record of 52 homers. When he does that, he'll also break Johnny Mize's NL record for most homers in a season by a left-handed hitter.

But don't bother Bonds about any of these possibilities. He'd rather talk about anything else.

Mays believes Bonds is doing the right thing by trying to deflect attention from his homer hitting. "Let him play," Mays told the San Francisco Chronicle's John Shea. "Let him enjoy what he's doing. Let him go. The more he tries to explain it, the less he does. That's how we are as players. You analyze it too much, you backtrack."

Besides, Bonds genuinely seems motivated more by getting another crack in the postseason than trying to one-up McGwire or Sammy Sosa. As recently as June 15, Bonds had more home runs (36) than the Giants had wins (35). But since then the Giants have won 31 games with him hitting 14 homers.

This trend is in keeping with wishes Bonds stated at Safeco Field on the day before the All-Star Game. He said he'd rather "stay at 39 home runs and go to the World Series with this team" than make a run at McGwire.

This guy has learned the hard way how fleeting the significance of personal achievement can be. A three-time MVP, he was named Player of the Decade in the 1990s by The Sporting News. Along with Mays, his godfather, and father Bobby Bonds he is one of only four men in the 300/300 club for homers and stolen bases (Andre Dawson is the fourth). Yet role players like Jim Leyritz and Luis Sojo have a better collection of jewelry.

In the biggest games of his life, Bonds has endured the ultimate frustration. His .290 career batting average has translated to .196 in the postseason. His regular-season ratio of one homer every 14.4 at-bats has been replaced with one homer in 97 playoff at-bats.

His Pittsburgh and San Francisco teams are a stunning 0-5 in playoff series, including seventh-game losses to Atlanta in the 1991 and '92 NL Championship Series. Because it's considered a regular-season game, this record of futility does not include the loss to the Cubs in the '98 playoff for the NL's wild-card spot. Bonds went 0-for-4 that September night at Wrigley.

At this year's All-Star break, the Giants were 5½ games out of first place in the West and 3½ back, and in fourth place, in the wild-card race. Their 20-10 record since then is the best in the National League.

While Bonds was often a one-man band in the first half, banging out homers like Max Weinberg flailing on a drum kit, he's been part of a symphony orchestra in the second half. It's no wonder he wants to be the stealth slugger, diverting as much attention as possible from his home runs.

While Sosa basked in the attention generated by his bat in '98, Bonds is more like McGwire. He'd rather talk about anything else on a daily basis. But there's no getting away from the reporters who will draw near as Bonds' home run total climbs. The question is whether he can emulate McGwire's gift for saying the exact right thing whenever the world is watching.

History says we should expect his public displays to swing wildly, like the stock market. But there won't be anything wild about his approach at the plate. Waiting for something he could crush, he saw 29 pitches in five plate appearances last Wednesday in Cincinnati. He wound up with three strikeouts (all looking) and two walks. He's taken 116 walks, 25 more than any other major-leaguer.

"He's the unpitchable guy," Cincinnati third baseman Aaron Boone said. "He just sits there and if you don't throw it over the plate, he spits on it and walks. And when you do throw it over the plate, he kills you."

As Dusty said, next stop 60.

Spotlight on: Livan Hernandez, RHP, Giants
The question at Wrigley on Saturday was which home run was hit harder, the one by Bonds or the one by Hernandez? There's no question who is the hotter hitter.

	Livan Hernandez Pitcher San Francisco Giants Profile
	2001 SEASON STATISTICS GM H R HR RBI AVG 24 20 7 1 8 .333

Beginning with a date against Curt Schilling on July 26, Hernandez has 12 hits in his last 13 at-bats. That includes a four-hit game on Saturday and two three-hit games.

"Hitters don't go 12-for-13," Cubs manager Don Baylor said. "He's probably hitting in the wrong spot."

For the season, Hernandez is batting .333 with one homer and eight RBI. He entered 2000 as a .227 career hitter, but has raised that average to .247.

"Livan's our hitting coach now," Bonds said. "I've never seen anything like that. Eight straight hits! It ain't that easy. He's embarrassing all of us, but it's fun to watch."

The hot streak is bringing back good memories for Hernandez. "I made the All-Star Cuba Junior team when I was nine years old, and I played third base," he said.

Keep an eye on Pac Bell Friday night. Hernandez goes into a start against Atlanta's Greg Maddux with hits in eight straight at-bats. The NL record is 10 and was reached nine times, most recently by Bip Roberts in 1992.

Series to watch
Cubs at Astros, Monday through Wednesday
While this figures to be a prelim for later meetings -- Houston and the Cubs meet seven times in the last 10 days of the season -- leadership of the NL Central is on the line this week at Enron Field. By winning nine of their last 11, including a 9-5 victory in Monday night's series opener, the Astros went from 4½ games behind Chicago to one-half game ahead.

Houston leads the season series 6-2 and match up quite well with the Cubs if they are minus Kerry Wood. The Cubs' dominator originally had his start last Saturday pushed back until Tuesday, but was placed on the DL when his sore shoulder prevented him from throwing in the bullpen on Sunday.

The Cubs downplay their concern over his injury -- the expectation is he'll return to work in a doubleheader against Milwaukee next Monday -- but it's hard to believe Don Baylor is sleeping easily. Julian Tavarez (2-4, 5.49 ERA in his last eight starts) will start against rookie Roy Oswalt Tuesday with Jon Lieber facing Pedro Astacio in Wednesday's final game.

The Cubs catch a break with a day off on Thursday but it is offset by the doubleheader next Monday. Even if Wood returns from the DL next Monday, Baylor will need an extra starter to work on Monday or Tuesday. You can bet that journeyman Joe Borowski, who was bombed by San Francisco on Saturday, won't get a return call. The most likely candidate is 20-year-old right-hander Carlos Zambrano, who is 9-3 with a 3.86 ERA for Triple-A Iowa.

New face: Brandon Duckworth, RHP, Phillies
Can you win a division title with three rookies in the starting rotation? Not likely, but by winning five of six against San Diego and Los Angeles the Phillies moved from three games behind Atlanta to one game ahead in first place. Four of those six victories were started by rookies, with Duckworth getting two wins and Dave Coggin and Nelson Figueroa getting one apiece.

"Those three guys, they don't scare," manager Larry Bowa said. "Without them, we're in trouble."

Duckworth, who went undrafted after pitching for Cal State-Fullerton, joined the rotation when Randy Wolf went on the disabled list with a sprained ankle. He worked six solid innings to beat the Padres in his big-league debut, then held the Dodgers to one run on three hits in seven on Sunday.

"I just go out with the mentality that no one is going to beat me," said the 25-year-old Duckworth, whose 54-24 pro career record includes a 15-2 record this season. "I'm going out there knowing I can contribute right now."

Duckworth remains the International League leader in wins (13), earned run average (2.63) and strikeouts (150). "(He's) living up to the hype, I'll tell you that," Bowa said.

With veterans Robert Person and Omar Daal pitching decently and the three rookies combining to go 9-3 with a 2.99 ERA in 19 starts, it's hard to know what GM Ed Wade will do when Wolf (6-10, 4.50) is ready to go back in the rotation. Maybe Wade knew what he was doing when he added relievers, not starters, before the trading deadline.

"Age is just a number sometimes," catcher Todd Pratt said of the rookie starters. "They're all talented, they have good heads and they can do well up here."

Team to watch: Athletics
Duh.

The only way these guys could be any hotter is if the franchise moved to Death Valley. Since GM Billy Beane traded for Jermaine Dye, they are 14-3 and have moved from third place in the American League wild-card race, five games behind Minnesota, to first place, two games ahead of Boston.

"Ever since I've been here, I've been calling us 'the Green Machine,' the way we've been playing," newcomer Erik Hiljus said. "Everything's clicking, it's just a pleasure. We're riding a wave, and I hope it's one of those big ones, a tsunami. I hope it goes forever."

Jason Giambi's game-winning homer off Mike Stanton capped a weekend sweep of the New York Yankees, who know this is one team they don't want to play in the postseason. The A's have seldom been more embraced by their fans. They drew an average of 39,667 during their homestand against Boston and New York, their highest average ever for a homestand.

"Last year, Boston and New York would draw well here, but half the crowd would be cheering for them," pitcher Mark Mulder said. "This is awesome. This is fun."

Oakland takes an 11-game winning streak into its trip to Toronto and Chicago. The A's have outscored the opposition 76-22 during the winning streak, with Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mulder each earning complete-game victories.

Thanks to Mulder joining Zito on the short list of premier left-handers, there's no better top of the rotation anywhere. During the winning streak, the Athletics' starters have averaged more than seven innings with a 1.53 ERA.

Mulder, who picked up his 15th win on Sunday, will take a seven-game winning streak into a start next weekend against the White Sox in Chicago, his hometown. He's tied with Roger Clemens for the AL lead in wins and with Brad Radke for the lead in complete games (five). He was 9-10 with a 5.44 ERA as a rookie.

"He's starting to get that cartoon-character status, like Huddy or Pedro (Martinez)," Giambi said. "Even other players are coming down to first base now and saying, 'Wow, he's so different from last year.' "

The same holds true with the A's compared to April. They have gone 60-32 since their 8-18 start. If they can make it into the playoffs, it would probably mean the Yankees have to beat Oakland and Seattle to get back to the World Series. Talk about an interesting October.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a web site at www.chicagosports.com.