Barry Bonds nearly homered in his first at-bat of the year and finished 1-for-4 at the plate, as the Giants rallied for a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres in the opener of a three-game series. Bonds narrowly missed a homer in the second inning, lacing a double off the left-center field wall. He flied out to center with two runners on in the third, flied out to center to end the fifth and struck out in the seventh. On Monday, the Giants activated Bonds from the 60-day disabled list and he was greeted with standing ovations and great anticipation from the crowd at SBC Park. The seven-time NL MVP hadn't played all season due to knee problems. He had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on January 31 and March 17, and had an operation again on May 2 to clean out a bacterial infection. "I felt I didn't want to let the city down," Bonds said. "That's the feeling that you have out there, the appreciation of the standing ovation and the cheers, and praying you don't let them (fans) down. You want to put on a good performance for them and bring that whole atmosphere back here in San Francisco, and get everybody excited." The Giants fell behind 3-0 in the first inning, but then rallied to win for just the second time in seven contests and move within six games of the first- place Padres in the National League West race. With 703 career home runs, Bonds is just 52 short of tying Hank Aaron's all- time record. He needs 12 more homers to surpass the legendary Babe Ruth for second place. The 41-year-old nearly had No. 704 in the second inning. He worked the count to 3-2 and on the 11th pitch of the at-bat, Bonds lined a ground-rule double high off the wall in left-center. A fan reached over the wall, with the ball coming inches of going over. "After that at-bat I was spent," Bonds chuckled. "I got a little tired by like the fifth inning. Your adrenaline is going so hard. I knew that was going to happen. I hung in there as long as I could." Ray Durham was up next and lined a single to right field to drive in Bonds. Edgardo Alfonzo singled to send Durham to third, and Durham scored on Todd Linden's double-play grounder to get the Giants within 3-2. The Giants moved ahead with two runs in the fourth inning. Durham led off with a homer to right, and Alfonzo doubled and scored later in the frame on Mike Matheny's single to left-center field for a 4-3 lead. That lead held up for Matt Kinney (1-0), who threw 5 2/3 innings of relief to get the win in his first win in a Giants uniform. Armando Benitez closed the door in the ninth inning for his 13th save. "It seemed to be a little more electric out there," Kinney said of Bonds' return. "That was great because that gives you a lot of energy and we responded." Adam Eaton (10-4) gave up 10 hits and four runs in six innings to suffer the loss for the Padres, who totaled five hits and have lost three in a row. Kevin Correia ran into trouble in the first inning for the Giants and was lifted in favor of Kinney after retiring just one batter. Correia walked Dave Roberts, hit Mark Loretta with a pitch and then walked Brian Giles to begin the game. He then uncorked a wild pitch for San Diego's first run. After Mark Sweeney hit a sacrifice fly and Joe Randa stroked an RBI single to make it 3-0, Ramon Hernandez singled and Correia's night was done. "Everybody wants to get to the playoffs," Bonds said. "You can just see it in the dugout that everybody wanted to win. If you get behind, sometimes you can just give up. No one gave up. Our pitching did a great job." Bonds, who is signed through 2006 for $18 million, began his 20th season nearly the same way he left 2004. Last year, he became the oldest winner of an MVP last year when he topped the NL with a .362 batting average. He also belted 45 homers and drove in 101 runs despite just 373 official at-bats. That's because he broke his own major-league record by walking 232 times. His .812 slugging percentage was tops in the majors and his .609 on-base percentage and 120 intentional walks set single-season major league marks. He also scored 129 times, second most in the NL.