Grace Comes Through

With the score tied in the eighth inning and a left-hander on the mound, Mark Grace was expecting a call back from the dugout. It never came.

Instead, Grace hit a tiebreaking two-run double to lead Randy Johnson and the Arizona Diamondbacks over the San Francisco Giants, 5-3, Tuesday afternoon.

Quinton McCracken reached on a fielder’s choice in the eighth and Felix Rodriguez (3-5) walked Tony Womack. An out later, Grace figured Manager Bob Brenly would pinch-hit Greg Colbrunn against left-hander Aaron Fultz.

“Once I didn’t hear any whistles or anything calling me back I thought, well, let’s go do it,” Grace said. “And I got that hit that went right down the [right-field] line.”

Brenly admitted he thought about calling back his first baseman, but only briefly.

Barry Bonds hit a solo homer and a run-scoring double for the Giants, who dropped two games behind the first-place Diamondbacks in the NL West.

Johnson (13-3) gave up three runs and five hits in seven innings. He struck out seven to move within eight of teammate Curt Schilling, who leads the major leagues with 191.

Former teammate Reggie Sanders hit a game-tying homer against Johnson in the seventh inning.

“Obviously, you don’t want to give up home runs,” Johnson said. “But at least they didn’t manufacture runs. It would have been worse if they had started stringing runs together. I don’t feel so bad about the home runs.”