SAN FRANCISCO -- He signed everything with a gold-leafed Sharpie -- his cap, his bat, his baseball shoes and his wristbands -- the date prominent next to his signature and the numerals: 705. Into a brown cardboard box they all went, which Barry Bonds, the third-leading all-time home run hitter, taped shut himself.

"All my baseball stuff I keep," Bonds said after that last chore of the day was done. "I keep every home run bat and put it in one of my vaults. Maybe down the road I'll get rid of it."

Bonds can forget about the baseball he smashed for homer No. 705 on Sunday at SBC Park to open the home team's half of the eighth as the Giants vanquished the Dodgers, 5-3, for their third consecutive win in the four-game series. It's floating in McCovey Cove, the 32nd one he's hit there since the ballpark by the bay opened in 2000.

Another towering drive, Bonds' second in his last two games and first against Dodgers rookie left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo, soared high above the 25-foot right-field wall and arcade seats into the brilliant blue sky of a late summer's sun-baked day.

The full-count pitch was nearly at his eyes, but he still whacked it full force with the barrel of his bat.

"That guy's really something," said manager Jim Tracy, whose Dodgers have allowed the last three Bonds homers over the course of nearly a year. "Can you imagine a 95-mph fastball, and he goes up and gets it like that?"

Bonds is now nine homers behind Babe Ruth's 714 and 50 away from Hank Aaron's cherished 755. The two RBIs on the day -- the first coming on a third-inning sacrifice fly -- give him 1,846 in his career, placing him alone in ninth place on the all-time list compiled by the Elias Sports Bureau. New York Giants Hall of Famer Mel Ott is eighth at 1,860.

Kuo, the 24-year-old Chinese Taipei native who pitched for that country's national team, faced Bonds for the first time and became the 415th hurler to taste his wrath. That's the most pitchers to allow at least a single homer to one batter in Major League Baseball history.

Bonds said he had no problem sizing up the hurler, who had him 0-2 before running the count full.

"I face [Giants batting practice pitcher] John Yandle, a lefty, all the time," said the lefty-swinging Bonds, who hit in the cages at UCLA for a week off Yandle before rejoining the team on Sept. 5 at Dodger Stadium to continue his workouts. "I feel real comfortable with the lefties. I've been struggling with the right-handers, though. I had a situation where I had to face a hard-throwing lefty and I got it."

Against the Dodgers, Bonds also ripped Brad Penny for homer No. 704 during the first inning Friday night, and Jeff Weaver had the honor of allowing homer No. 703 last Sept. 26 in the final home game of the Giants' season. In between, Bonds had four surgeries on both knees -- three on his problematic right one -- and he missed the first 142 games of the current season.

Bonds had been in injury rehab at a clinic in Los Angeles from June 24 until his return to the team.

Since he was activated off the disabled list, Bonds is 5-for-16 (.313, after his first multihit game Sunday), with two homers, three RBIs, three runs scored, one double, three walks (one intentional) and three strikeouts. If luck had been more on his side, he could already have had five homers and at least another double, but several balls were just foul, fell just short of the seats or were ruled to have hit just below the fence.

"He's given the team a lift and he's hit the ball hard," said Peter Magowan, the team's managing general partner. "He's even played in the field well, which some people were questioning. He's played seven, eight innings every time he starts. He stayed in that game [Friday] on a cold night. He's done very, very well."

Bonds came out after hitting the home run Sunday and he has played at least seven innings in the five games he's started.

But Sunday's game marked the first time this season that Bonds and Moises Alou had played in the same lineup. Bonds, of course, missed most of the season, and when he came back Monday against the Padres, Alou was nursing a sore groin. He hadn't played in the first six games since Bonds returned.

Both players sat out Saturday, the second time Bonds missed a day game after a night game, and professed to be nervous Sunday.

"I went home on Saturday night and got to sleep early so I'd be ready to play," said Alou, who was drafted by the Pirates in 1986, but never played in a game with Bonds during his tenure in Pittsburgh.

"This is a long time coming for us," said Bonds, who played for the Pirates from 1986-1992. "I was so upset at the Pirates when they traded him [to Montreal in 1990]. As a young player, he had all that talent and we were just waiting for him to come in. So we finally get together. Sometimes it's better late than never."

Now, the Bonds show will hit the road for a 10-game trip -- the team's last of the season. The opener Tuesday night will be the first appearance against the Nationals at RFK Stadium for both Bonds and his team. The trip will end with four games against the first-place Padres in PETCO Park, with three games in Colorado sandwiched in between.

The Giants have 13 games remaining and trail the Padres by 5 1/2 games.

Bonds was wistful when asked if he was frustrated that he couldn't have returned earlier to have a greater impact on the race. The Giants are 5-2 with Bonds on the active roster, 69-80 overall.

"You can't turn back the clock," he said. "You've got to go with what's in front of you."