Giants Win Game but Lose Bonds

[Baseball Guru]

By BEN WALKER
AP Baseball Writer

July 20, 2002, 4:29 AM EDT

Barry Bonds never wanted to take this type of walk.

Bonds limped off the field after straining his right hamstring while chasing a ball Friday night in the San Francisco Giants' 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in 12 innings.

"I would list it as a significant strain of the muscle," Giants trainer Stan Conte said. "It's low in the muscle, which is a good sign, but like most of these things, I'm not going to be able to tell much until tomorrow."

Bonds' hamstring had immediate swelling, and his muscle didn't relax even with Conte's massage. The All-Star left fielder did not comment on his injury.

"Sometimes he looks really bad and the next day he's a lot better," Conte said. "That's why I'm holding final judgment of how bad it's going to be until tomorrow."

Bonds leads the majors in slugging percentage and on-base percentage. The home-run champion also is on a pace to break his own major league record for walks in a season.

Bonds pulled up lame going after Eric Karros' leadoff triple in the 11th inning at Dodger Stadium. He stayed down on the warning track as Conte worked on his leg, then got up and limped off under his own power.

"I tried not to think the worst," Baker said. "When he was holding his leg, I was just hoping it wasn't his knee."

The Giants escaped that jam in the 11th and won when Tom Goodwin, who took Bonds' place, hit an RBI single after an intentional walk.

[Turnin 2 SS 2b]

LOS ANGELES -- Less than 12 hours after he strained his right hamstring Friday night, Barry Bonds was feeling better but nowhere close to being ready to play.
"When you start looking at these hamstring things, you see people out two or three days to longer than that, so it's really how he responds to treatment and how quickly he moves along before you can start predicting," said head trainer Stan Conte, adding that he believes Bonds will be out at least a couple days.

"Also, with hamstring problems, people get better and they walk better and they jog better, but sprinting is a whole different situation," Conte said. "Right now, we're a long way from that. We're at the crawling/walking stage."




Barry Bonds / LF

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 210
Bats/Throws: L/L

More info:
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Bonds was at Dodger Stadium early Saturday morning and received physical therapy treatment from Conte, but the trainer said it's way too early to determine how long the slugger will be out or if he will be required to spend time on the disabled list.

"This is kind of the same thing that [the Reds are] doing in Cincinnati with Ken Griffey Jr.," he said. "Hamstrings are really difficult to tell you how soon to predict, and it's not way high up in the muscle belly, which is a good sign. It's lower down, behind the knee. ... He's walking a little bit better, but he's walking with a limp and that's bad, so we're going to take this almost hour by hour and get a little bit better idea."

Bonds stole a base in the inning prior to suffering the injury, but he does not believe that had any impact on the injury. He told Conte that he "couldn't believe he'd hurt his hamstring after stealing a base" and that the sudden change in direction he made while going after Eric Karros' fly ball could have been one cause of the strain. Another, he said, might be the drastic change in surface going from grass to the hard rubber warning track at Dodger Stadium.


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"I see some concern. ... This is more than just a little bit of an ache."

-- Stan Conte,
Giants head trainer

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The Giants left fielder did not speak to the media, offering just a two-word report on his health. "I'm alive," he said.

Bonds strained his left hamstring during Spring Training and it has bothered him at different points in the season. The latest injury, though, is to the other leg.

"If it was a re-injury of the same hamstring, I'd be more concerned," said Conte. "But it wasn't a thing where a guy pulled up and kind grabbed his hamstring a little bit and walked off the field. This guy went down and couldn't get back up."

By definition, a strain means there is a muscle tear in Bonds leg. The team may decide to have a magnetic resonance imaging performed today or Monday, but not for diagnostic purposes. The reason for taking an MRI, according to Conte, would be to determine a prediction of when he might be able to return to action.

"The other thing is, you have the Barry Bonds factor in this whole thing," said Conte. "This is a guy who in Colorado went down with a back injury that I [thought] would be a minimum of six weeks, but he was back in four days.

"I see some concern, that's the reason I told [the media Friday] night it was significant. This is more than just a little bit of an ache

[Baseball Guru]

By Associated Press

July 23, 2002, 10:26 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants star Barry Bonds will likely miss the remainder of this week's series against St. Louis after an MRI test confirmed Tuesday he had strained his right hamstring.

Bonds hurt himself Sunday chasing a ball in left field at Los Angeles. He pinch-hit in the ninth inning of San Francisco's 5-3 loss to the Cardinals on Monday night and struck out swinging against Jason Isringhausen.

"You could tell he wasn't right on the breaking ball," Giants manager Dusty Baker said. "It was something we and he needed to see."

The Giants and Cardinals play through Thursday. Bonds could miss the rest of the homestand, which ends Sunday.

"Based on what we saw last night it gives us an indication that it's not going to be a one- or two-day thing," said Giants trainer Stan Conte.

Jeff Kent and Reggie Sanders were also out of the Giants starting lineup on Tuesday. Kent is slowed by a mild strain of the upper left leg and Sanders left Monday night's game with a mild right hamstring strain.

Kent was available to pinch-hit, but Sanders was expected to miss a couple of days.

"Let's hope we get it all out of our system now," said Baker. "We need to get everybody back."