Barry Bonds smacked his 740th career home run to move within 15 of all-time leader Hank Aaron as the San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 2-1 on Sunday.

Bonds delivered his second homer in as many days and sixth of the season in the fourth inning to help the Giants win their fifth straight game.

The 42-year-old sent the first pitch he faced from Yusmeiro Petit in the fourth into the arcade behind right field to give San Francisco a 2-0 lead and back up the three-hit pitching of Matt Cain.

"(Petit) did everything he needed to do," Diamondbacks catcher Chris Snyder told reporters after the game.

"The pitch to Bonds he left over the plate a little bit. That was probably the only mistake that he made."

Bonds went 1-for-3 with one strikeout and is batting .348 for the season.

"It just amazes me what he does at his age, the way he swings the bat, the way he's moving around," Giants manager Bruce Bochy told reporters.

"It just tells you how much better he is than the rest of us."

The right-handed Cain struck out four and walked four in the complete game as Arizona lost its fourth straight.

Cain had a one-hitter going until the ninth inning when Eric Byrnes and Alberto Callaspo hit back-to-back singles. Byrnes then scored on Orlando Hudson's double-play grounder.

Pedro Feliz homered in the third for San Francisco's other run.

Boston edge out Yanks

In Boston, prized Japanese import Daisuke Matsuzaka picked up the second victory of his fledgling major league career as Boston Red Sox sluggers backed up their pitcher to sweep the New York Yankess with a 7-6 victory.

Third baseman Mike Lowell's second home run of the game clinched a first three-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway Park since 1990 as Boston made the most of a record-equalling third inning to help Matsuzaka move to 2-2 for the season.

The 26-year-old rookie struck out seven batters and hit two in seven innings, giving up six runs on eight hits as the Red Sox (12-5) rallied twice to move four games clear of their bitter American League East rivals.

"I wanted very badly to record my first win at Fenway Park," Matsuzaka told reporters.

"Given the fact that my command wasn't great on a lot of my pitches today... very few batters in that entire lineup will go easy on you if you throw a soft pitch."

As they had in the previous two games of the series, the Yankees (8-9) took an early lead when designated hitter Jason Giambi's first-inning double drove in right fielder Bobby Abreu and third baseman Alex Rodriguez.

Giambi singled home Johnny Damon in the top of the third to stretch the advantage to 3-0 as the visitors looked to salvage the final game of the series.

However, Boston rallied to take the lead when they became the fifth team in major league history to hit four straight home runs.

"Usually four straight hitters don't square up the ball for hits, let alone home runs," Lowell said.

"That was a real momentum shift."

(China Daily via Agencies April 24, 2007)