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  Thursday, Sep. 28 10:10pm ET
Giants take lead in home-field race
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The San Francisco Giants are two games over .500 on the road and 29 games over at Pacific Bell Park. So it doesn't take much thought to figure out where they want to open the NL playoffs.

Barry Bonds
Giants slugger Barry Bonds, center, is greeted by bat boy Jason Glushon after clubbing his 49th homer of the season.
"We're going for it, to try to get that home-field advantage," manager Dusty Baker said Thursday night after Barry Bonds' go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning helped beat Los Angeles 5-3 and gave the Giants the best record in the majors.

"The guys have played hard," Baker said. "There's a lot at stake and a lot to play for. Now we've got to face a tough Arizona team."

It won't be easy for the Giants, whose 95-64 record gives them a one-game lead over Atlanta and St. Louis heading into a season-ending three-game series at Arizona, where they are 3-0. They face Brian Anderson on Friday night and Randy Johnson on Sunday.

"To be honest, I don't think any of these games has been played at the same level," second baseman Jeff Kent said. "There's just something that's missing, and it's not our fault."

The Giants haven't finished with the NL's best record since 1962, when they beat the Dodgers in a best-of-three playoff for the pennant.

"Tonight was a huge win for us," first baseman J.T. Snow said. "We're just trying to do what we can to win games, finish with the best record and get that home-field advantage. We've won a lot more games at home and we've played better at home."

Felipe Crespo homered in the eighth inning, the Giants' franchise-record 222nd, one more than the New York Giants hit in 1947, when Johnny Mize led the team with 51.

Aaron Fultz (5-2) pitched 1 2/3 innings of one-hit relief, and Robb Nen worked the ninth for his 40th save, his 27th in a row.

Trailing 3-2, the Giants regained the lead in the seventh when Bill Mueller, who went 3-for-5, singled off Terry Adams (6-9) and Bonds followed with his 49th homer of the season. It was the 494th of his career, moving him ahead of Lou Gehrig into 17th place.

Crespo pinch hit in the eighth and connected off Mike Fetters.

Dodgers starter Kevin Brown allowed two runs and six hits in five innings, striking out eight in his final start of the season. He finished 13-6 with a 2.58 earned-run average, third-best in the majors behind Boston's Pedro Martinez (1.74) and Arizona's Randy Johnson (2.38).

"He's dominated us over the past couple of years since I've been here, and he's beaten up on us pretty good. So we know that every run is big," Snow said.

Brown's 216 strikeouts were third behind Johnson (342) and Martinez (284). Brown received three runs of support or fewer in 11 of 33 starts.

"I think he had a better season this year than last year," Dodgers manager Davey Johnson said. " We didn't support him very well, offensively, but it goes with the territory."

Giants starter Shawn Estes gave up three runs -- two earned -- and four hits in 5 1/3 innings.

The Dodgers' Gary Sheffield was ejected in the eighth by umpire Chris Guccione for arguing a called third strike.

San Francisco took a 2-0 lead in the fourth on Snow's RBI single and a run-scoring wild pitch by Brown.

Todd Hundley hit an RBI grounder in the bottom half and Los Angeles, held to one hit in the first five innings, tied it in the sixth on Hundley's RBI single. Paul Loduca followed with a sacrifice fly off Fultz for a 3-2 lead.

Game notes
Dodgers executive Tommy Lasorda, making a triumphant return to Dodger Stadium after managing the U.S. Olympic baseball team to the gold medal, received a standing ovation from the crowd of 44,513 when he was introduced on the field during the third inning. Organist Nancy Bea Hefley serenaded Frank Sinatra's old pal with a few choruses of "My Way." ... For the second time in Brown's two seasons as a Dodger, the team reached the 3 million mark in home attendance on the night he made his final start. They've reached that figure in each of the last five years and a record 15 times overall. ... Estes induced his major league-leading 40th ground-ball double play. ... Green is homerless in 22 consecutive games.
 


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