Schilling Bottoms Out in Ninth Against Mets

This time, Philadelphia Manager Terry Francona may have left his ace in an inning too long.

Francona let Curt Schilling, with a 4-0 lead heading into the ninth inning at New York on Sunday, pitch the final inning for his fourth consecutive complete game. But Schilling hit his first two batters of the season before John Olerud’s two-run single capped a five-run ninth and forced Schilling to walk off the mound a 5-4 loser to the Mets.

“I thought he was in complete control of that game,” Francona said. “I had [Wayne] Gomes and [Jim] Poole warming up, but regardless of who was available, that’s his game. He had everything left at the end.”

Mike Piazza led off the ninth with a single and Robin Ventura followed with a home run. With one out, Matt Franco singled and Luis Lopez was hit by a pitch. Pinch-hitter Jermaine Allensworth’s run-scoring single made it 4-3. Roger Cedeno grounded into a forceout before Alfonzo was hit by a pitch.

Olerud lined the first pitch for an opposite-field single to left. Cedeno barely beat Ron Gant’s on-target, one-hop throw to catcher Mike Lieberthal for the game-winning run.

Pittsburgh 6, Florida 5--Al Martin blooped a go-ahead double over the Marlins’ drawn-in infield in the ninth inning to give the Pirates a victory at Miami.

Marlin starter Alex Fernandez hit his first major league homer, a two-run shot that made it 5-0 in the second. The Pirates rallied to tie it at 5-5 in the sixth.

Pittsburgh wound up 2-5 on its road trip. The Marlins have not won a series at home all season.

Houston 4, San Francisco 1--Jose Lima gave up four hits in eight innings for his eighth consecutive victory and Jeff Bagwell hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in the seventh for the Astros at San Francisco.

With the victory, the Astros avoided being swept in the three-game series.

Lima gave up Marvin Benard’s home run to start the game but held the Giants scoreless over the next seven innings. He struck out two and walked one in becoming the NL’s first-eight game winner. He is 5-0 mark on the road.

Chicago 5, Atlanta 1--Sammy Sosa hit his 14th home run and Terry Mulholland gave up one unearned run over 7 2/3 innings to help the Cubs win at Atlanta.

Henry Rodriguez and Jose Hernandez also homered for the Cubs, who defeated the Braves for the fifth time in seven games this season. Atlanta swept Chicago in the first round of the playoffs last year.

Hernandez and Sosa hit consecutive homers in the first off Odalis Perez to put the Cubs up, 2-0. It was Sosa’s 10th homer in the last 18 games.

Colorado 7, Arizona 6--Dante Bichette hit a three-run home run off closer Gregg Olson with two outs in the ninth inning and the Rockies rallied to defeat the Diamondbacks at Denver.

Bichette’s homer capped a four-run ninth for Colorado. Neifi Perez led off with a single off Olson and one out later Darryl Hamilton also singled.

With two outs, Larry Walker singled to score Perez. Bichette then homered just inside the left-field foul pole, his eighth.

Milwaukee 13, Montreal 4--Ron Belliard hit a go-ahead single in a five-run eighth inning and drew a bases-loaded walk in a seven-run ninth, lifting the Brewers over the Expos at Montreal.

In both big innings, the Brewers had two outs and nobody on base.

Milwaukee actually trailed, 4-1, in the eighth when, with a runner on first, Dave Nilsson struck out but reached on Steve Kline’s wild pitch and sparked Milwaukee’s highest-scoring game of the season.