Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants cranked out a solo home run in the sixth inning Sunday afternoon as a touring team of Major League Baseball All-Stars scored a 5-4 win in the eighth and final game of a goodwill series against their Japanese counterparts.

The Tokyo Dome was lit up by thousands of flashbulbs in the ninth inning as major-league manager Bobby Cox brought on Seattle Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki to shut the door on his compatriots. Sasaki, recently named the American League Rookie of the Year after a 37-save campaign in his first year in North America, picked up his second save of the series, giving up a pair of hits while striking out two as the major leaguers headed home with a record of five wins, two losses and a tie.

Sasaki revealed after the game that he had trouble gripping the ball for his money pitch, a nasty split-fingered fastball, after his pitching hand was hit by a fly ball during warmups a few days earlier.

"It did hurt a bit," said Sasaki, "but it's my job to get out there and do my best, so I won't use that as an excuse."

Bonds' blast deep into the right-field bleachers off Hawks pitcher Kenichi Wakatabe was his fourth of the series -- his fifth if you count a shot in Game 3 that was ruled foul but appeared to land in fair territory in TV replays -- and the San Francisco slugger was named Most Valuable Player of the series.

"It's a great honor," said Bonds, who hit .321 with two doubles and nine RBIs while in Japan. "But we came here as a team to win and that's the most important thing. We also wanted to make it exciting for the Japanese fans and I think we did a good job of that."

Bonds, who hit .306 with 49 home runs and 106 RBIs this past season in leading the Giants to the National League West Division title, credited an unusual source for his success in Japan.

"(Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher) Randy Johnson's been giving me some batting tips, telling me to keep my head on the ball and to keep my chin down" Bonds joked. "I've been listening to his advice."

Montreal Expos shortstop Jose Vidro, who homered to lead off the sixth inning and was 3-for-4 with two RBIs, was named MVP of the game.

For the Japanese stars, Toshihisa Nishi shone brightest, posting a lofty .444 average while playing every game. For his efforts, the Yomiuri Giants second baseman was honored with the Outstanding Player Award.

Sunday's contest was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning. Vidro led off with a single off starter Tomohiro Kuroki of the Lotte Marines and moved to second when Shawn Green hit into a fielder's choice. After Bonds flew out to left, Jeff Kent, his teammate in San Francisco, singled to advance Green to second. Gary Sheffield of the Dodgers then came up and hit a harmless looking infield fly that dropped in for a hit. As Kintetsu third baseman Norihiro Nakamura, Nippon Ham catcher Toshihiro Noguchi and Kuroki all stood around and watched the ball fall safely between them, Green raced home from second to score the game's first run.

The locals squared the game at 1-1 in the top of the sixth when Yomiuri slugger Hideki Matsui slashed a double down the left-field line off Cincinnati Reds reliever Danny Graves to score speedy Yokohama infielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo, who had been hit by a pitch, all the way from first. Anaheim catcher Bengie Molina gunned Matsui out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

From there, the lead went back and forth in the seesaw affair. After Vidro and Bonds homered in the bottom half of the sixth frame for a 3-1 lead, the Japanese struck right back the following inning with a two-run double to left-center from Hanshin's Tsuyoshi Shinjo and a run-scoring single by Nishi to go up 4-3.

That lead was to be short-

lived, however, as Molina and Vidro both singled in runs in the bottom of the seventh to put the tourists ahead for good.

MLB starter Albie Lopez of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays worked five strong innings, giving up six hits and no runs. Colorado reliever Mike Myers survived a rocky outing, allowing four hits and three runs in one inning of work, but still came away with the win.

Wakatabe was saddled with the loss after allowing eight hits and four runs in 2 1/3 innings.

"There's a little more pressure than people think on this tour, because you come over here with a great team and you're expected to win," Cox said after the game. "The pressure mounts a little bit . . . this would have been a great ballgame if the series would have been tied."

But with his mission accomplished, the Atlanta Braves skipper had nothing but good things to say about his experience in Japan.

"(The tour) is extremely well organized, the ballparks are great and the people are fabulous. It's a great thing for us to see a different place, different culture. I wish we had two or three more ballgames because I'm not ready to go yet."

The 37-year-old Johnson, also known as the "Big Unit," put on a show for local baseball fans. The 6-foot-10 power pitcher, who led the majors in strikeouts for the third consecutive season with 347, whiffed 14 Japanese batters in seven innings of work over two games here.

Two years ago, a touring team of major-league stars went 6-0 in the biennial series that began in 1986 (with the exception of 1994, when the event was not held). Major-league teams have been holding exhibition tours of Japan off and on since the early 1900s.