Arizona Beats Reds Despite Bullpen

The Arizona bullpen cost Randy Johnson his 19th victory, but the Diamondbacks regrouped to score twice without a hit in the eighth inning and defeat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3, Tuesday night at Phoenix.

Matt Williams drove in the go-ahead run with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly against reliever Danny Graves, and another run scored on David Dellucci’s groundout.

Arizona has won nine of 10, including four in a row over the Reds. The Diamondbacks swept a three-game series at Cincinnati last week.

Mike Fetters (3-0), one of three relievers Arizona used in the eighth, got the victory. Byung-Hyun Kim pitched a scoreless ninth for his 30th save, retiring Sean Casey with two on to end it.

Kim matched Gregg Olson’s team record for saves set in 1998, Arizona’s first season.

Johnson, who had won his last five starts, settled down after a wild start to strike out 12 in seven innings. He left with a 3-2 lead, but the Reds rallied in the eighth.

Ken Griffey Jr. tied the score with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly against Fetters with the bases loaded. Griffey was out of the starting lineup because of a sore left hip flexor.

San Francisco 1, New York 0--Jason Schmidt struck out the first six batters he faced at San Francisco and finished a five-hitter by striking out Mike Piazza with a runner on third base.

In one of his most impressive performances since joining the Giants late last season, Schmidt (8-6) tied a career high with 13 strikeouts and didn’t allow a runner to reach second base until the eighth inning. The shutout was the second of his career.

Barry Bonds had two hits and scored on a throwing blunder in the sixth inning.

With the bases loaded, Tsuyoshi Shinjo hit a liner to short right field that was caught by Jeromy Burnitz, and Bonds didn’t try to tag up from third.

But Benito Santiago tagged up from second base and began running toward third. When Bonds saw the Mets throw to get Santiago, he ran home and beat the throw to Piazza.

Al Leiter (10-10) was nearly as impressive as Schmidt, giving up six hits and striking out eight in seven innings.

San Diego 6, Atlanta 2--Brett Tomko pitched a seven-hitter at San Diego for his second complete game this season and Ron Gant had his first two-homer game in more than two years.

Tomko (7-8) had been 0-2 with a 7.01 earned-run average against Atlanta before the fourth complete game of his career.

Pittsburgh 8, St. Louis 0--Kris Benson gave up one hit in seven innings at St. Louis and the Pirates, who had lost six in a row to the Cardinals, homered a season-best five times.

Brian Giles, Craig Wilson, Adam Hyzdu, Aramis Ramirez and Rob Mackowiak homered, and Jason Kendall had a three-run double.

Kerry Robinson got St. Louis’ hit, a blooper to left-center field in the first.

Colorado 8, Montreal 6--Denny Neagle had his fourth consecutive solid outing since rejoining the rotation, and Jay Payton hit a three-run homer to lead the Rockies at Denver.

Neagle (7-7) went five innings, giving up seven hits and three runs--two earned. Demoted to the bullpen for a month at midseason, the left-hander is 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in his last four starts.

Neagle gave up a run in the third to end his consecutive scoreless innings streak at 20, a record for a Rockie starter and third-best in team history.

Milwaukee 2, Philadelphia 1--Jamey Wright pitched into the seventh inning at Milwaukee to beat the Phillies for the first time in more than five years.

Jose Hernandez had a run-scoring single for Milwaukee.

Pat Burrell hit his career-high 30th home run for the Phillies.

Chicago 14, Houston 12--Corey Patterson tied a career high with four hits and drove in three runs at Houston, where Chicago got 24 hits.

Houston’s Lance Berkman hit his 33rd homer and drove in five runs. Jose Vizcaino had four hits and three runs batted in for the Astros, who remained five games behind St. Louis in the NL Central.

The teams combined for 40 hits, an Astro record.