Schilling Is No Match for Giants

Curt Schilling’s return did nothing to alter the dominance of Barry Bonds and the San Francisco Giants over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Bonds tied a major league record with his 12th consecutive 30-homer season and rookie Jerome Williams (5-1) yielded only two hits through six innings Saturday in the Giants’ 8-1 victory.

Ray Durham greeted Schilling with a home run on the second pitch of the game -- the first outing for Arizona’s right-handed ace since he broke his right hand on May 30.

Bonds hit a mammoth 448-foot shot over the swimming pool in right-center with one out in the fourth, his major league-leading 30th home run of the season -- matching the mark set by Jimmie Foxx from 1929 to 1940.

“His swing is special right now,” Giant Manager Felipe Alou said. “He’s getting around some fastballs that I don’t remember any guys getting around at that age, and to pull them a long ways like he did that one from Schilling today.”

Bonds has homered in five consecutive games and eight of his last nine, including a 432-foot drive off Miguel Batista in Friday night’s 10-7 victory. He has 643 homers, 17 shy of Willie Mays for No. 3 on the career list.

Bonds also had a two-run, opposite-field double as the Giants improved to 6-1 against Arizona this season and increased their West Division lead over the second-place Diamondbacks to six games.

After winning 18 of 21, Arizona has been outscored, 32-10, while losing three in a row for the first time since May 17.

“It’s what happens when big league hitters get pitches to hit,” Diamondback Manager Bob Brenly said. “We’ve just made some mistakes in the strike zone and they’ve hit them hard.”

Schilling (4-4) gave up five runs -- four earned -- and six hits in six innings. He struck out five, walked two, hit Bonds with a pitch and allowed a run to score when he was called for runner’s interference.

“I’m disappointed. I didn’t pitch well,” Schilling said. “I felt fine. Everything felt good. I just didn’t get the job done today.”

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30 by the Break

Major league players to hit 30 home runs before the All-Star break, since 1961:

*--* Year Player, Team HR 2003 Barry Bonds, San Francisco 30 2001 Barry Bonds, San Francisco 39 2001 Luis Gonzalez, Arizona 35 2000 Mark McGwire, St. Louis 30 1999 Sammy Sosa, Chicago (NL) 32 1999 Jose Canseco, Tampa Bay 31 1998 Mark McGwire, St. Louis 37 1998 Ken Griffey Jr., Seattle 35 1998 Sammy Sosa, Chicago (NL) 33 1998 Greg Vaughn, San Diego 30 1997 Mark McGwire, Oakland 31 1997 Ken Griffey Jr., Seattle 30 1996 Brady Anderson, Baltimore 30 1994 Ken Griffey Jr., Seattle 33 1994 Matt Williams, San Francisco 33 1994 Frank Thomas, Chicago (AL) 32 1989 Kevin Mitchell, San Francisco 31 1987 Mark McGwire, Oakland 33 1976 Mike Schmidt, Philadelphia 31 1976 Dave Kingman, New York (NL) 30 1973 Willie Stargell, Pittsburgh 30 1971 Willie Stargell, Pittsburgh 30 1969 Reggie Jackson, Oakland 37 1969 Frank Howard, Washington 34 1969 Willie McCovey, San Francisco 30 1964 Harmon Killebrew, Minnesota 30 1961 Roger Maris, New York (AL) 33

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