Schilling Sparkles Again, Gets Win No. 17

Curt Schilling is Arizona’s slumpbuster.

He pitched seven scoreless innings to become baseball’s first 17-game winner, leading the Diamondbacks to a 7-0 victory over the error-plagued Atlanta Braves on Friday night at Atlanta.

Once again, Schilling (17-5) prevented the Diamondbacks from falling into a losing streak. He is 10-1 in 14 starts following an Arizona defeat.

Schilling and Randy Johnson (15-5) are keeping their team in the playoff race. The other Arizona pitchers are a combined 32-41.

“Those guys have been the stoppers when there’s a leak in the boat,” said Luis Gonzalez, who was held to a single and has now gone a week since hitting his 43rd homer.

Schilling and Johnson are the only pitchers to win for the Diamondbacks during a 5-9 slide that knocked them out of first.

“Realistically, we know they’re not going to run the table the rest of the year,” Gonzalez said. “The offense has got to pick it up and the 3-4-5 guys in the rotation have got to step it up.”

Arizona moved back into second in the Natinal League West, a half-game behind the Dodgers and a half-game in front of San Francisco.

Schilling overpowered the Braves, allowing only one runner to reach second base before Javy Lopez and Mark DeRosa led off the eighth with consecutive singles.

Troy Brohawn came out of the bullpen to snuff out the rally. He struck out pinch-hitter Bernard Gilkey on a called third strike and got Marcus Giles to hit into Atlanta’s third double play of the game.

Schilling opened with strikes to 24 of the 26 hitters he faced, falling behind in the count only six times. He gave up six hits, struck out six and walked only one to equal his career high for wins.

Atlanta lost its third in a row and has just a one-game lead in the East over Philadelphia.

Chicago 9, San Francisco 3--Jon Lieber pitched an eight-hitter for his 15th victory and the Cubs won as the Giants gave Barry Bonds a day off in Chicago. Lieber, who is 9-1 in his last 11 starts, struck out four and walked one.

The Giants, who had won 12 of 14, fell 1 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West, as the Cubs increased their lead over the Houston Astros to two games in the NL Central.

Fred McGriff hit a grand slam for the Cubs.

St. Louis 7, New York 6--Craig Paquette hit a sacrifice fly to score Kerry Robinson with the go-ahead run in the 10th inning as the St. Louis Cardinals rallied from a five-run deficit to win at New York.

Mike Piazza’s RBI double in the seventh tied it, 6-6, after the Cardinals rallied from a 5-0 deficit.

Jim Edmonds hit a two-run homer and Edgar Renteria added a solo shot to put the Cardinals ahead, 6-5, in the sixth.

Milwaukee 5, Montreal 1--Jeromy Burnitz homered twice and Ruben Quevedo struck out a career-high 11 to lead the Brewers at Montreal Expos. Burnitz hit a solo shot off Mike Thurman (6-8) in the fifth. After Mark Loretta homered with two outs in the seventh, Burnitz hit his 24th homer of the season to put the Brewers up 5-0.

Vladimir Guerrero struck out with the bases loaded against Curtis Leskanic to end the game.

San Diego 3, Pittsburgh 2--The Padres’ Rickey Henderson hit a go-ahead home run on the night the Pirates honored newly inducted Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski at Pittsburgh. Henderson’s two-run homer followed winning pitcher Brian Tollberg’s leadoff single in the fifth.

Trevor Hoffman came in to get pinch-hitter Keith Osik to pop up with the bases loaded in the eighth, then closed out the ninth for his 28th save in 30 opportunities and the 299th of his career.

Colorado 16, Cincinnati 7--Jose Ortiz went five for six with a three-run homer and Larry Walker also hit a three-run shot for the Rockies, who won at Cincinnati and have scored 30 runs in their last two games.

Houston 7, Florida 2--Pedro Astacio earned his first win for Houston and Vinny Castilla had four hits, including his 15th homer, and drove in three runs to lead the Astros at Miami. Astacio (7-13) gave up five hits and two runs in 7 1/3 innings, Jeff Bagwell hit his 29th homer and Craig Biggio had four of the Astros’ 15 hits.