Bonds misses golden opportunity to jump past Aaron

Barry Bonds swung four times on Monday -- popping up, grounding out and missing twice on the four pitches. Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Tom Verducci The People's King: Aaron's home run mark of 755 will endure as a magical number. Serving Up History Catching up with Al Downing, Steve Trachsel and more milestone gopherball pitchers. In His Own Words Often surly and even melancholy, Bonds is always outspoken when it comes to Bonds. The Milestones Take a look back at Bonds' landmark home runs: from No. 100 to 715 and beyond. Hammerin' Hank A career retrospective of the man who first surpassed the Babe's longstanding record. Sports Villians Some consider Bonds one of the true 'bad guys' in the sports world, but he has plenty of company. SI Covers See each of Bonds' eight appearances on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Bonds makes history with No. 756 | VIDEO Heyman: Selig wiggles out of date with history Survey: Is Bonds the true Home Run King? Donovan: Bonds holds record, but he's no hero Taylor: Bonds' ability never in question React: Should Selig have been there? Time.com: Where are the HR balls now? Time.com: The Man With Million Dollar Balls Donovan: Bonds leaves no doubt in San Diego Tale of the Tape: Barry Bonds vs. Darth Vader Markazi: Downing relishes link to Aaron's 715th Baseball Prospectus: Heirs to the throne Freedman: Corporate America shuns Bonds Photos: The Growing Legend of Bonds Excerpt: Game of Shadows | Afterword

SAN FRANCISCO -- You just don't get a better chance than this one. This was a fastball down the middle, a date with the bombshell blonde. This was finding Mr. Right, and discovering that Mr. Right has a boatload of Google stock.

Barry Bonds, in his first and what might turn out to be his best shot at seizing the most important record in baseball, had everything going for him Monday night at AT&T Park. Everything. The venue, the crowd, the kayakers in the cove, the rookie on the mound. If Bonds had been trying to set this thing up -- and there are many who still insist that's exactly what he's been doing -- this is how he would have done it.

Except, we all seem to forget, Bonds is in a slump of truly horrific proportions. He hit a home run Saturday night in San Diego -- maybe you heard about it, career No. 755? -- but, other than that, Bonds has been simply dreadful lately. Since the beginning of July, Bonds basically has been Mike Cameron. Only with more walks. And a lot less speed.

So Monday, it shouldn't have been a huge surprise to anyone that Bonds was handled, rather easily, by a 22-year-old rookie left-hander for the Nationals by the name of John Lannan, making only the third start of his career. The 43-year-old Bonds got four cracks at Lannan, and here's how they went:

• A weak foul popup down the third base line.

• A walk.

• A double-play ball into the teeth of the Nationals' defensive shift.

• A heaving, out-of-his-cleats strikeout on a 77 mph curveball.

"It's not easy for a kid who just started in A ball this year," Manny Acta, the manager of the Nationals, said of Lannan.

To anyone who has seen him over the past month or so, Bonds' night was no stunner. It was, though, a source of great disappointment to the more than 43,000 fans at AT&T Park. They had dutifully trudged to the beautiful downtown stadium by the water on a cool Northern California evening to be a part of historic homer No. 756, the one that would vault Bonds past Hank Aaron on the list of career home runs.

From the start, the crowd was ready, applauding as Bonds walked out to left field in the top of the first, standing every time he stepped up to hit, booing Lannan for every ball, groaning at every out. At one point in the fifth inning, a chant of "Barr-eee, Barr-eee," began to grow, only to die quickly as Bonds swung at a high fastball, got on top of it and rolled into the double play.

That's how it's been lately with Bonds, who is now hitting just .181 (13-for-72) since the beginning of July. Bonds has 32 walks in that stretch and five homers in the 104 plate appearances. But that's not what we've become accustomed to with Bonds. Not even the 43-year-old Bonds.

No at-bat has underlined Bonds' slump more than the strikeout Monday. Acta was so sure of Lannan, and so sure of what he could do against Bonds, that he declined to pull his starter for a warmed-up Ray King, even though Bonds had only one hit in 16 at-bats against the reliever King. And that was four years ago.

Instead, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman went up to Lannan on the mound before the showdown -- "He just told me to calm down and trust what I was throwing," Lannan said -- and the kid threw a heck of a 3-1 curve. Bonds couldn't hold back.

"Why not?" Acta said of his decision to keep Lannan in. "He was throwing the ball well. It was left-on-left with two outs. Why not do it that way?"

Saturday in San Diego, Bonds worked for nearly 45 minutes on his swing during an early batting practice at Petco Park, and it paid off when he sent a Clay Hensley fastball into left field for No. 755. Bonds said afterward that he had ironed out some mechanical flaws, and that he expected to hit the record-breaker soon, sending his friends in the national press who have been following him over the past couple of weeks back to their hometowns.

Monday, though, he fell right back into his recent bad form, swinging wildly on a couple of occasions, missing a few fat pitches and generally looking a little antsy. The hardest part, Bonds has said, is over. But it didn't look that way Monday.

Bonds might have even looked a little ... skittish.

"I was pretty nervous going for [win No.] 300, and a lot of people have done that," the Padres' Greg Maddux said last Friday after he stymied Bonds at Petco Park. "He's doing something nobody has done."

Giants manager Bruce Bochy took Bonds out of the game after the strikeout, continuing a strategy of pulling him early to allow his some extra rest. The Giants rallied to win, 3-2, in 11 innings.

Bonds has six more games in the next six days to nose past Aaron for the record, including three more games against the Nationals and a pitching staff that is largely young and untested. Tuesday, he'll face another left-hander, Mike Bascik. After veteran Tim Redding on Wednesday, he gets another rookie on Thursday. And after that, if he still doesn't have the record, he gets a shaky Pirates' pitching staff for three weekend games.

Monday night was the perfect opportunity for Bonds. But he knows better than anyone that it won't be his last. Not by a long shot.