Blanking Braves Is Fun for Schilling

With Curt Schilling on the mound, Arizona’s recent hitting and bullpen woes were irrelevant.

In a home debut that couldn’t have been much better, Schilling shut out Atlanta for the second time this season as the Diamondbacks beat the Braves and Greg Maddux, 2-0, Wednesday night at Phoenix.

“It’s a lot of fun. This is what it’s all about,” Schilling said. “We went out and did what we had to do tonight against a guy who’s won four Cy Youngs.”

Schilling (8-6) is 2-0 since the trade that brought him to Arizona.

Schilling, 7-2 with a 1.69 ERA in his last 10 starts, gave up six hits and retired the final 13 batters. He struck out four and walked one in his fifth complete game of the season and 15th shutout of his career.

The 33-year-old right-hander has given up one run in 17 innings for the Diamondbacks, and is 3-0 against the Braves this season.

Jay Bell’s two-out RBI double in the third inning provided Schilling with the only run he needed. Matt Williams drove in Bell with a single for the second run.

Maddux (12-6) lost his third decision in a row. He gave up two runs and five hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked two, one intentionally.

St. Louis 10, Montreal 7--Will Clark hit a home run in his first start for St. Louis and Jim Edmonds homered twice and drove in five runs at Montreal.

Clark, acquired from Baltimore on Monday to play first base in Mark McGwire’s absence, went three for four. He drove in two runs.

Clark, who doubled in his first Cardinal at-bat Tuesday night, homered to lead off the second inning. He reached safely in his first five plate appearances for St. Louis before popping up in the ninth.

The NL Central-leading Cardinals are 9-14 since McGwire--currently on the 15-day disabled list because of right knee tendinitis--has been out of the lineup.

Edmonds, who returned to the lineup after sitting out two games because of a sore right hip, matched his career high for RBIs in a game. He has knocked in 77 runs and scored a league-high 102.

Milwaukee 6, San Francisco 4--Raul Casanova’s two-run double highlighted a three-run rally in the eighth inning as the Brewers avoided being swept at Milwaukee.

Trailing, 4-3, the Brewers tied it in the bottom of the eighth on a leadoff single by Ron Belliard followed by a bunt single by Marquis Grissom. Both runners moved up on a flyout by Geoff Jenkins. After a walk to Richie Sexson, Belliard scored on a sacrifice fly by Jeromy Burnitz off Livan Hernandez (10-8).

After Charlie Hayes walked to load the bases, Casanova greeted Felix Rodriguez with a double down the right-field line, scoring Grissom and Sexson.

Florida 5, Houston 4--Pinch-hitter Henry Rodriguez doubled in his first at-bat for Florida, setting up Luis Castillo’s two-run single in the bottom of the ninth inning at Miami.

Dave Berg singled off Marc Valdes (2-3) to start the ninth and Rodriguez, acquired Monday from the Chicago Cubs, batted for Ramon Castro and blooped a double.

Jesus Sanchez ran for Rodriguez and Mike Lowell was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with no out. Castillo followed with a single off Valdes’ leg into center field.

Chicago 3, Colorado 2--Sammy Sosa led off the eighth inning with his 33rd home run, carrying the Cubs to a victory at Chicago.

Sosa hit a 2-2 pitch from John Wasdin (0-1) onto Waveland Avenue over the left-field bleachers to give the Cubs their 15th win in 20 games since the All-Star break.

New York 2, Cincinnati 1--Robin Ventura hit a two-run homer in the first inning and Al Leiter retired 18 of the last 19 batters he faced as the Mets completed an 8-1 home stand at New York.

Ventura, who returned from the disabled list last weekend, hit his 17th home run and first since June 24 for the Mets, who took two of three from the Reds.

San Diego 5, Philadelphia 2--Matt Clement, who stayed with the Padres despite many trade rumors, ended his three-game losing streak with a win at San Diego.

Eric Owens had three hits and scored twice as the Padres swept the three-game series.

Clement gave up two runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked two.