SAN FRANCISCO -- Time has come today, the old rock lyrics say. And with it comes the end of the Barry Bonds era in San Francisco. The clock will begin ticking at 7:15 p.m. PT on Wednesday against the Padres when Bonds trots out to left field at AT&T Park for the last time and it will stop somewhere within the framework of nine innings.

"Yes, he'll start tomorrow," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Tuesday night after the Padres came from behind in the ninth inning to hand his team a 6-4 loss that was as devastating as most of the 23 blown saves this season. "He'll be ready to go."

Bonds hasn't played since Sept. 15 when he sprained his big right toe near the left-field fence in San Diego, trying to make a leaping catch on a triple hit by Adrian Gonzalez. Under any other condition, Major League Baseball's all-time leader with 762 home runs could just shut it down for the season and come back next year.

But Bonds, who isn't under contract for 2008, was told late last week by Giants upper management that there will be no next year for him, at least not in San Francisco. Bonds said before the game that he's having no trouble digesting that information.

"I'm not sad, not sad at all," he said. "I played 15 years and never had a bad year here. Every year, I went out to left field and did my job. I gave it everything I had here. They were 15 great years. There's nothing to be sad about. Everything has to end."

Bonds' 15-year tenure with the Giants officially ends Sunday when the season closes in Los Angeles. How long he'll play Wednesday night, when the Giants plan to honor him throughout the evening with video highlights and tributes between innings, is still an open question.

"I don't know. We'll see how he feels. How he's doing," Bochy said. "I'll talk to him [Wednesday] before the game and see where he is with his big toe. It's hard to say percentage-wise [how much better he is]. He's gotten better, but it's still bothering him. He says he'd like to get out there and start, and that's what we're going to do."

If there's any doubt that the fans are still clamoring to see him, the crowd Tuesday night began chanting its trademark "Bar-ry, Bar-ry" as the Giants came to bat in the eighth and ninth innings hoping for a pinch-hit cameo appearance.

None was forthcoming. That became particularly evident, when, with one out in the ninth, the tying runs on base and Bengie Molina coming to the plate, Ray Durham was sent to the on-deck circle to pinch-hit for reliever Scott Munter even as what was left of the crowd chanted for Bonds. But the left-handed slugger was already up in the clubhouse dressed in street clothes and had been for several innings.

Molina grounded into a double play, ending the game and making the matter moot anyway.

Bochy was asked if he had any inclination to use Bonds as a pinch-hitter once the fans started chanting for him.

"Yeah, it would've been nice to be able to use him," said Bochy, whose team lost its 88th game of the season. "But he was still pretty sore and he wasn't available."

Asked later on if he had given Bonds permission to shed his uniform early, Bochy reiterated only:

"He wasn't available."

If you're looking for positive signs, Bonds took batting practice on the field before the game for the second consecutive evening and even went out to left to field some balls.

Heading from the clubhouse onto the field before BP, Bochy stopped Bonds and ushered him into his office for a chat. Both of them emerged cheerily and then went about their business.

"It went fine," Bochy said. "We just talked about some things. I wanted to see where he's at, the progress on his toe."

The 43-year-old Bonds has stressed all season that he wants to play another year and he reiterated Tuesday that he expects to test free agency as soon as the filing period begins after the World Series.

But Bonds has gone out with a whimper rather than a roar at the end of the season in which he passed Hank Aaron into the top spot on the career home-run list.

Bonds hasn't homered since Sept. 5 at Colorado and hasn't blasted one into the far reaches of his own home ballpark since Aug. 24 against Milwaukee, a one-hop shot into McCovey Cove that came only hours after he was feted by the city during a lunchtime rally near the downtown ferry terminal.

Bonds has had only two RBIs since Aug. 25. And though he's only four away from the 2,000 mark, that plateau may have to wait until he returns next season. Bonds has also accumulated just seven hits this month, leaving him 65 short of 3,000. In contrast, Bonds hit four homers in six games sandwiched around Aug. 7, the night he passed Aaron against the Nationals.

Overall, Bonds is batting .279 with 28 homers and 66 RBIs in 125 games. The home run total is far and away the most hit during a season in which a Major League player turned 43.