Schilling Gets to New Level in Diamondbacks’ Victory

Curt Schilling won his career-high 18th game, the most in the majors, as Arizona completed a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates with a 5-2 victory Wednesday night at Phoenix.

Schilling (18-5) matched his season high with 13 strikeouts and walked one in eight innings. He gave up two runs and six hits.

“I would love to get caught up in it, but I just can’t afford to right now,” Schilling said, “not with where we’re at and what’s going on.”

Matt Williams hit a two-run home run and Mark Grace singled in two runs as Arizona won its sixth in a row to remain one game ahead of second-place San Francisco in the NL West.

Schilling has won his last four starts and has given up no more than two runs in eight of nine outings. He reached double-digits in strikeouts for the 10th time this season and 60th time of his career.

“I think he threw only two, maybe three curveballs all night,” Diamondback Manager Bob Brenly said. “He was able to locate that fastball. He got them to chase some up high out of the strike zone, then bounced the splitter in the dirt, and that’s a deadly combination. I tell you, he knows his stuff and he knows how to use it.”

Brian Giles’ two-run home run in the fourth gave Pittsburgh a brief 2-1 lead. The Diamondbacks scored four in the bottom half to regain the lead for good.

Junior Spivey had a solo home run in the first for Arizona.

Dave Williams (1-5) walked Spivey to lead off the fourth, then gave up four consecutive hits.

Williams gave up five runs and six hits in seven innings.

San Francisco 2, Florida 1--John Vander Wal doubled in the winning run with two out in the ninth inning at San Francisco.

Rich Aurilia and Barry Bonds, who was 0 for 4, grounded out before Jeff Kent walked, and Preston Wilson couldn’t quite get to Vander Wal’s hit to center off Vic Darensbourg (1-1).

The Giants have won 16 of their last 19.

Chicago 5, Houston 1--Jon Lieber pitched a three-hitter and Joe Girardi drove in three runs at Houston as the Cubs extended their NL Central lead to 1 1/2 games over the Astros.

After losing the series opener and dropping out of first place for the first time since May 29, the Cubs rebounded to win the final two games of the series.

Lieber (16-5) improved to 13-2 in his last 16 starts. He gave up Lance Berkman’s second-inning homer, Craig Biggio’s third-inning double and Jeff Bagwell’s fourth-inning single, then retired his final 18 batters.

Lieber struck out four, leaving him seven short of 1,000, and walked none.

“I’ve just gone out and tried to be aggressive and see what happens,” Lieber said. “Sixteen wins, with these guys in this clubhouse, anything is possible.”

Philadelphia 8, Milwaukee 6--Scott Rolen homered and singled at Milwaukee and Omar Daal (11-4) won for the first time since July 13 despite giving up five runs--four earned--and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Jose Mesa pitched a perfect ninth for his 31st save in 33 chances.

St. Louis 8, Cincinnati 4--Jim Edmonds homered and drove in four runs at St. Louis and Mark McGwire singled to start the fifth against Chris Reitsma (5-13), his first non-home run hit in 72 at-bats.

McGwire’s last 11 hits had been home runs since he singled off Houston’s Roy Oswalt on July 18.

The Cardinals have won seven in a row, which has thrust them back into the NL Central race--four games behind the Cubs.

San Diego 2, New York 1--Trevor Hoffman pitched a perfect ninth for his 300th save, completing a two-hitter that lifted the Padres at San Diego.

Hoffman, 33, became the 14th player in major league history to reach the milestone and was mobbed by teammates after retiring Todd Zeile on a game-ending fly ball.

Hoffman, who has 29 saves in 31 chances this season, has had at least 40 saves in four of the last five seasons.

Kevin Jarvis (10-9) gave up one run and two hits in eight innings.

San Diego’s Rickey Henderson moved closer to a pair of milestones.

Henderson scored a run to raise his career total to 2,228, 18 short of breaking Ty Cobb’s career mark of 2,245. Henderson also went one for three to increase his hit total to 2,976

Atlanta 7, Colorado 2--Chipper Jones hit a grand slam and John Burkett pitched seven strong innings at Denver.

Brian Jordan added a two-run home run and Andruw Jones hit a solo shot for the Braves, who remained two games behind NL East-leading Philadelphia.

Atlanta had lost six in a row--its longest skid in five years.