NEW YORK -- It didn't take much detective work to understand why the Major Deegan Expressway around Yankee Stadium was choked with traffic at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday. All weekend, the Yankees and Giants had played to a standoff, but this inter-league collision wouldn't be complete until Barry Bonds stepped in against Roger Clemens.

	“	I'm not in the business of entertaining people. I'm here to win games. ”
		— Yankees manager Joe Torre

It was a baseball-lover's nirvana, all right: deity versus deity, an I Dare You fastball against an I Own You swing. Who could resist such drama, even in June?

Trouble is, no one got the chance to see what the Rocket would do against baseball's single-season home run champion. It never got that close.

Between Clemens and reliever Steve Karsay, Bonds drew four walks and was hit by a pitch -- leaving him in such an ugly mood after the game, he refused to speak to the media, chasing away any reporter who dared to come to his locker.

"Get the (bleep) away from me," Bonds told a Bay Area writer. "I'm serious."

As a group, the Giants weren't much happier following the 4-2 loss to the Yankees. They actually didn't blame Clemens for ducking Bonds -- or, at the very least, weren't surprised -- but they had issues with the third-inning fastball that clipped Bonds on the right wrist.

In particular, manager Dusty Baker believes Clemens hit Bonds on purpose, pointing to a quote in many newspapers on Friday where the Yankee ace promised to, "take that piece of plastic (elbow guard) off him."

So, when Clemens' nailed Bonds not far from that target, Baker responded in kind after the game.

"You can be bold in this (American) League and get away with it. It's different in our league where you have to hit," Baker said. "Not tot take anything away from Roger, but in the National League he might not be ... what's his nickname? The Rocket? In our league he might be Roger the Dodger."

This isn't the first time an opposing team has accused Clemens of using his fastball as a weapon -- and then hiding behind his designated hitter. But as always, Clemens refused to be drawn into a debate over whether he hit Bonds on purpose.

"I'm not going to respond to that," Clemens said. "Barry stands right over the plate, and that pad is in the strike zone. That pitch was one ball (width) inside, so I'm not even going to comment on that."

Clemens was equally unmoved that the much-anticipated showdown with Bonds failed to live up to its expectations. The Giants slugger saw 20 pitches all day, only two of which were strikes that he swung at.

To this, the Rocket just shrugged and said, "if you want to see Barry get his hacks, show up at 5 o'clock (during batting practice). I'm just trying to make good pitches to him."

That much was obvious, even from the first inning, when Clemens walked Bonds on five pitches.In his second at-bat, Bonds was hit when the count was 0-1, and then in his next three at-bats, two of which were against Clemens, Bonds drew intentional walks.

In the fifth and seventh innings, with runners on second base on both occasions, Joe Torre instructed Clemens to issue the intentional pass -- taking full responsibility. The manager said, "I'm not in the business of entertaining people. I'm here to win games."

In the ninth inning, however, the Yankees were presented with a more subtle challenge, since Mariano Rivera was unavailable due to a groin injury and Karsay was facing Bonds with a runner on first, two out, and protecting a two-run lead.

Torre went to the mound to repeat an obvious warning to his reliever: tread lightly. In fact, be paranoid about middle-of-the-plate strikes.

Karsay actually got Bonds to swing over a first-pitch splitter, but then fell behind in the count, 3-1, at which point Torre admitted, "I ran out of guts." He ordered Bonds intentionally walked again -- a strategy that paid an instant dividend, as Benito Santiago grounded out to end the game.

Giants shortstop Rich Aurilia spoke for an entire clubhouse when said the Giants were disappointed Bonds had been pitched around -- again. Even many Yankee fans booed the decision.

"I'm sure me and about 55,000 other people would've liked to have seen Barry get something to swing at," Aurilia said. "That's what they came here for."

No one argued the point -- not even the Yankees themselves. But Torre stood by his decision not to let Bonds hit another upper-deck beast of a home run, not when the Yankees had a chance to take the series from the Giants and inch a game closer to the Red Sox.

"Look, there's no question there's no greater theater than the pitcher against the hitter,'' Torre said. "The one-on-one is great. But those people booing, I'd like to poll them and ask if they'd rather go home with a victory or having seen Barry beat us with a homer."

Bob Klapisch of The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) covers baseball for ESPN.com.