SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds included virtually everything and everybody except himself in summarizing the Giants' 6-5 victory Wednesday night over the St. Louis Cardinals, which ended with Rich Aurilia's RBI single in the 12th inning.

"We won the game, we pitched well, the bullpen pitched well, Rich got a clutch hit. There you go. Bye," Bonds said.

Bonds actually was a major contributor for the Giants. He collected his 738th career homer with one out in the eighth inning, driving Ryan Franklin's 2-2 pitch into McCovey Cove for the Giants' 42nd "Splash Hit" in the history of AT&T Park. The long ball tied the score, 5-5, and left Bonds 17 homers behind all-time leader Hank Aaron.

"Barry saved us there," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.

Franklin became the 437th pitcher to surrender a homer to Bonds.

"I tried to throw another split down in the zone and it just hung. It was a hanging mistake," Franklin said. "He hit like a good hitter is supposed to do.

"He's got 738 homers for a reason. He's a great hitter."

Besides hitting his fourth homer of the season, Bonds also walked and scored in the second inning and launched a sacrifice fly in the fifth. With five more runs, he'll tie Pete Rose (2,165) for fifth on the all-time list.

Since moving from third in the batting order to the cleanup spot, Bonds is hitting .438 (7-for-16) with three home runs, six runs, seven RBIs and seven walks. Overall, Bonds is batting .306.

Bonds played the entire game in the Giants' first extra-inning contest of the season, almost guaranteeing that he'll receive a rest Thursday afternoon against St. Louis. Bonds rarely starts in day games following night games.