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CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Barry Bonds belted his 50th homer, Livan Hernandez hit his first and the San Francisco Giants kept rolling. Bonds became the oldest and fastest to 50 homers and the red-hot Hernandez backed another solid outing with a blast of his own as the Giants pounded the Chicago Cubs, 9-4, to inch closer to first place in the National League West. Bonds continued his record-setting home run pace, becoming the oldest player in major league history to hit 50 in a season. The 37-year-old superstar hit a three-run shot off righthander Joe Borowski (0-1) with two out in the second inning, making it 6-0. St. Louis slugger Mark McGwire had been the oldest player to hit 50 in a season, belting 65 in 1999, when he turned 36 with three games left. Bonds surpassed his previous season high, set last year. He has 50 homers in 117 team games, nine ahead of the pace set by McGwire in 1998, when he hit a record 70. "You know I don't talk about home runs. I talk about wins," Bonds said. "The records are going to be nice at the end of the season if it means that we go into the playoffs and beyond. Otherwise, they're just individual accomplishements, which have nothing to do with winning." "I think he's quite remarkable to be hitting 50 home runs at his age with still over six weeks left in the season," Cubs manager Don Baylor added. "That's pretty awesome. I don't know if he'll hit 70, but he's going to hit a heck of a lot more." Hernandez (11-11) has been one of the hottest pitchers and hitters in baseball. He has won five straight decisions and has 12 hits in his last 13 at-bats, including eight in a row. "I've always been a good hitter," Hernandez said. "I think I hit 21 hits last year, 18 the year before. You know, when I played in Cuba, I was a third baseman the days I didn't pitch." Hernandez homered in the third, a two-run shot off reliever Will Ohman that made it 8-0. That was the second hit in a 4-for-4 day that included three runs and three RBI. The Cuban refugee is the first pitcher to collect four hits in a game since Colorado's John Thomson did it against Florida on June 1, 1997. His consecutive hits streak is two off the NL record, last done by Bip Roberts in 1992. "Yeah, it's incredible, no question," Hernandez said. "I've just been lucky to get my bat on the ball. I'm a fastball hitter and luckily I've been getting fastballs." The righthander also gave up four runs -- one earned -- and seven hits in eight innings, striking out six without a walk. He has not lost in seven starts since July 3. "Right at the All-Star break, I went home, relaxed and everything changed for me," Hernandez said. "I decided to just go out there, have fun and throw the ball. It's been great ever since." The Giants had 15 hits as they bounced back from Friday's 9-3 loss with their 13th victory in 16 games and tied Los Angeles for second place in the NL West, one-half game behind Arizona. Recalled from Class AAA Iowa and making his first start of the season, Borowski got out of trouble in the first as he got Bonds to look at a third strike and saw center fielder Michael Tucker gun down Rich Aurilia at the plate on Jeff Kent's single. The righthander was not as lucky in the second. Ramon Martinez and Hernandez singled home runs and Aurilia plated a run when he bounced into a force play. Bonds followed with his 544th career homer, four behind Mike Schmidt for eighth on the all-time list. "He pitched me well the first time up," Bonds admitted. "Then he got a little cute the next time I faced him. He got behind in the count, so I was looking fastball and I got it. I think after he kind of got shook up and he had trouble locating to the rest of the guys." "When you have to go to the minor leagues for a pitcher during a pennant race, it's not usually going to work out for you," Baylor said. "It's not Joe's fault. He just had bad location today and the Giants took advantage of it." Ironically, Cubs superstar Sammy Sosa had been the quickest to 50 homers, needing 121 games to get there in 1999. He hit his fourth homer in three days in the seventh, giving him 41 on the season and ending Hernandez's shutout bid. "(Bonds is) in a good posistion to break the record if everything goes right for him," said Sosa, who hit 66 the year McGwire hit 70. "He can do it. I wish him the best." Hernandez singled and scored in the eighth before allowing three unearned runs in the bottom half as the Giants committed an error and a passed ball. Felix Rodriguez pitched the ninth. Kent had three hits and J.T. Snow added two for the Giants. Sosa had two hits and two RBI for the Cubs, who had their lead over Houston in the NL Central reduced to one game.
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