San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds is one home run away from standing on the same level as former Yankees slugger Babe Ruth on the all-time list for career home runs with 714 long balls.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Cubs are in the midst of a seven-game losing streak as they suffered an 8-3 loss to the San Diego Padres last night as pitcher Greg Maddux failed in his second attempt to collect his sixth win of the season. Further, the Cubs, because of injuries to aces Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, have been forced to use three rookies in their rotation to go along with Carlos Zambrano and Maddux.

Both teams kick off a three-game stand in San Francisco with the Giants facing two of the three Chicago rookies in left hander Rich Hill and Sean Marshall. While Marshall has shown signs of being able to be a solid major league pitcher with a 2-0 record on the season and an ERA of 3.12 in six starts since earning a spot in the rotation coming out of spring training, Hill struggled in his first start of the season on May 4, going only four innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks. In that start, the lefty allowed six hits, five runs (all earned) and two home runs while striking out only one batter.

It is almost as if Bonds planned this situation with the schedule makers before the season started.

Hill takes the mound for the Cubs tonight to face off against Giants ace Jason Schmidt in the seventh straight road game for Chicago. Baseball fans will be pleased to know that the game will be televised nationally on WGN starting at 10 p.m. so Bonds lovers and haters alike will be able to possibly see history tonight if Bonds ties Ruth with his 714th career home run.

Unfortunately, the second game of the series is not currently signed up to be televised by a national station so if Bonds hits home runs in back-to-back games, the nation will miss out on seeing the ball carry out live unless they are tuned to ESPN2, who has begun showing every Bonds at-bat recently. Thankfully, the third game of the series will be televised nationally on WGN.

Will Bonds tie and pass Ruth in the series against the Cubs? Judging by how things are set up, it is likely that he will at least tie Ruth against the North Siders. Will he pass the Babe against the Cubbies? It certainly would seem so based on how things have gone for the Cubs the past two weeks as they have fallen from the top of the National League Central and things have become so tense in the dugout and organization that some sources are suggesting that manager Dusty Baker may be on his way out.

Beyond that of the Cubs' struggles, the Giants will be at home - a perfect setting for the San Francisco slugger instead of the hostile conditions he has seen on the road where he has been hastled by fans (such as the large sign held up by a slew of fans in Philadelphia that said: "Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer. Aaron did it with class. How did you do it?" with the dots on the "i" and exclamation point being an asterisk) and has had to avoid objects being thrown on the field, one of them syringe.

Like him or not, Bonds will tie and pass Ruth this season barring an injury within the next couple of days or a monumental slump. He is simply too close to the milestone. He can smell it, he can feel it. And even those among baseball who find themselves unable to stand Bonds, who would love nothing more than to have Bonds break his leg on his way to AT&T Park, will be unable to stop him.