National League

Barry Bonds struck his 68th home run of the season as the San Francisco Giants defeated the San Diego Padres 10-5.

Bonds' homer came in the second innings of his team's win and puts him within two of Mark McGwire's record of 70 in one season, which the St Louis Cardinals' star set in 1998.

Bonds now has 562 career home runs, putting him eighth on the all-time list, one behind Reggie Jackson. Hank Aaron leads with 755.

McGwire reached the mark in his 162nd game of the 1998 season whereas Bonds' 68th homer came in the Giants' 154th game.

In Atlanta, the Braves posted a 5-3 victory over the New York Mets in the opener of a pivotal three-game series.

The Braves had lost seven of their previous 11 games but their win over the Mets takes them two games ahead of second-placed Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East with eight games remaining.

Houston Astros lost 6-2 at the Chicago Cubs while the Montreal Expos rallied to a 7-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

The defeat condemns the Reds to a 25-51 home record, the worst in the Major League.

Kevin Millar's one-out homer in the bottom of the tenth lifted the Florida Marlins to a 6-5 win over Philadelphia.

The Colorado Rockies beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-5 while in Phoenix the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3.

St Louis Cardinals capitalised on six errors as they beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 14-3.

American League

In Seattle the Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 5-3.

Seattle now need five wins in their final eight games to break the 1998 New York Yankees AL record of 114 victories.

Freddy Garcia (18-6) tied the single-season team record for wins by a right-hander while Ichiro Suzuki tied the AL rookie record for hits.

But the Mariners will be without shortstop Carlos Guillen for the rest of the season. He has been diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis.