The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Barry Bonds took a seat in his big leather recliner and let out a contented sigh. He was home again.

Bonds returned to Pacific Bell Park on Tuesday night for his first home game with the San Francisco Giants since the death of his father, Bobby, on Aug. 23.

He relaxed on the big chair in front of his bank of lockers before taking the field for batting practice 2 1/2 hours before the Giants' game against Colorado.

The Giants don't anticipate any reoccurrences of the exhaustion that prompted Bonds to spend Sunday night in a Phoenix hospital, but they'll keep an eye on the superstar slugger during San Francisco's five-game homestand.

Bonds had a rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, dizziness and chest pains when he was scratched from the lineup a few moments before Sunday's game. He wondered if he was having a heart attack during batting practice, and the Giants sent him to the hospital.

An EKG exam revealed atrial fibrillation, and he was kept overnight for observation. But the symptoms had disappeared by the time he got the game-winning hit in the ninth inning of San Francisco's win over Arizona on Monday.

"I think the emotion triggered a few things, but he's pretty good at checking those emotions," trainer Stan Conte said Tuesday. "I think it's still more about the exhaustion. In a situation where it's potentially dangerous and potentially life-threatening, you want to be as careful as possible."

Bonds had blood tests in the hospital last weekend, and the results will be revealed later in the week. Conte will do "nothing special" to keep an eye on Bonds this week, he said.

Bonds initially returned to the Giants last Saturday, hitting his 653rd career homer off Randy Johnson. He's just seven homers shy of tying his godfather, Willie Mays, for third place on baseball's career list.

But he has barely slept since Aug. 14, when he took his first stint on the bereavement list to spend time with his father, who had been ill for nearly a year with lung cancer, a brain tumor and other ailments.

"I have to go back to work," Bonds told reporters in Phoenix on Monday. "I have to get back in there."

PHILLIES: Philadelphia bolstered its bullpen, acquiring left-handed reliever Valerio De Los Santo from the Milwaukee Brewers for a player to be named later or cash.

De Los Santos was 3-3 with a 4.13 ERA and one save in 45 games with the Brewers. In 48 innings, he struck out 35 and allowed 38 hits, while holding opponents to a .225 average.

TIGERS: Detroit outfielder Bobby Higginson has dropped his appeal of a two-game suspension from Major League Baseball.

Higginson was to begin serving the suspension with Tuesday night's game against the Cleveland Indians at Comerica Park.

Higginson and bench coach Kirk Gibson were suspended and fined Aug. 18, following their ejections from an Aug. 10 game against the Minnesota Twins.

Higginson was suspended for two games for "directing inappropriate comments" at umpire Doug Eddings during an argument over balls and strikes and then "through the media following the game," the commissioner's office said. Higginson also was fined $2,000.

Gibson, who was fined an undisclosed amount, served his one-game suspension Aug. 18.