Giants 5, Cardinals 3

ST. LOUIS – On Barry Bonds’ 40th birthday, the St. Louis Cardinals made somebody else beat them.

A day after Bonds’ three-run, seventh-inning home run contributed to a San Francisco Giants’ victory, he drew his major league-leading 79th intentional walk at a key spot in the Giants’ 5-3, 10-inning victory.

Edgar Alfonzo’s two-run homer off Ray King (3-1) sent the Cardinals to their first extra-inning loss in seven games this season.

But the Giants went ahead for good in the 10th on San Francisco has won the first two games of the three-game series, the Cardinals’ first consecutive losses since they were swept in a three-game series at Pittsburgh June 28-30. St. Louis had won 15 of 17 coming into the series.

Felix Rodriguez (3-4) got the last out in the ninth, and Jason Christiansen got the last out in the 10th for his second save .

Pinch-hitter Pedro Feliz had put the Giants ahead 3-2 with a two-out infield hit in the ninth off the glove of second baseman Tony Womack. An RBI double by pinch-hitter Marlon Anderson off Jim Brower in the bottom half retied it.

Jim Edmonds homered for the second time in three games for St. Louis, and Marquis Grissom homered for the Giants, who have won seven of their last eight against the Cardinals.

Bonds, who has 25 homers and 141 walks, went 1-for-4 and leads the major leagues with a .362 average.

In 17 games on his birthday, Bonds is a .385 hitter (20-for-52) with two homers and 13 RBIs. Last year, in a victory over the Diamondbacks, he threw out the potential tying run at the plate in the top of the ninth, then hit a winning homer in the bottom of the ninth.

Pitching against the team he played with last season, Brett Tomko allowed two runs and six hits in eight innings.

Carpenter worked around a season-high five walks in his eight-inning stint, allowing two runs and five hits.

Snow walked to start the second, went to third on Cruz’ double and scored on a double play ball to give the Giants the lead. Edmonds led off the bottom of the second with his 24th homer.

St. Louis took the lead in the sixth on consecutive one-out singles by Roger Cedeno, Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen. Cruz made a diving stop in the hole at shortstop on Rolen’s grounder but threw late on a force attempt at second.

Grissom’s 15th homer tied it at 2 in the seventh. He had been 7-for-35 with two RBIs since the All-Star break.

Notes: Hector Luna got a spot start at SS on Saturday for the Cardinals. His last three starts have come on the last three Saturdays. … Snow is batting .377 with three homers and 12 RBIs in 19 games since coming off the DL following arthroscopic knee surgery on June 25. … The game drew a sellout crowd of 48,145. … Anderson is 10-for-26 (.385) as a pinch hitter with two homers and eight RBIs.

AP-ES-07-24-04 1847EDT