Schilling Silences Giants

Curt Schilling was too much for Barry Bonds. The rest of the San Francisco Giants didn’t stand a chance, either.

Schilling struck out 12 in seven innings of masterful one-hit ball, becoming the majors’ first 14-game winner on Saturday as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Giants, 9-2.

Schilling (14-4) held the Giants hitless until Armando Rios’ one-out single in the seventh barely got past second baseman Jay Bell.

In the seventh, David Dellucci got the first pinch-hit grand slam in Arizona’s history, one of Arizona’s four homers.

Luis Gonzalez hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to give him 38 on the season, tying the Diamondbacks’ franchise record set in 1999 by Bell. Matt Williams followed Gonzalez’s shot with a solo homer as Arizona broke open a tight game.

The showdown between baseball’s winningest pitcher and its home run king was decisively won by Schilling. Bonds, who leads the majors with 42 homers, went 0 for 3 against Schilling with two groundouts and a strikeout.

Schilling also tied Randy Johnson’s franchise record by striking out seven consecutive hitters. He walked two but didn’t allow a ball out of the infield until Rios’ hit.

Schilling might have finished the game, but Arizona’s four-run burst in the eighth inning took nearly 45 minutes and may have allowed him to cool down too much.