Schilling Rides a Hot Hand to 21

Curt Schilling won his major league-best 21st game, striking out nine in seven innings, and the Arizona Diamondbacks kept up their mastery of the Cincinnati Reds with an 11-3 victory Wednesday night at Phoenix.

The Diamondbacks have won 10 of 11, five against Cincinnati. They can complete a sweep of their six-game season series against the Reds with a victory tonight.

Steve Finley doubled, tripled and singled in his first three at-bats and drove in three runs. He had two chances to complete the cycle with a home run but struck out in the sixth and flied out to right field in the eighth.

Quinton McCracken was three for five with three runs batted in, including a two-run homer, his third this season but second against the Reds in the last week. Junior Spivey doubled twice and drove in three runs.

Schilling (21-4) gave up two runs and five hits, and walked one, giving him 259 strikeouts and 20 walks this season. He threw only 75 pitches, 58 for strikes.

Schilling began the game with 13 consecutive strikes. His first ball was to Jason LaRue, the second batter in the third inning. Through three innings, Schilling threw 18 pitches, 17 for strikes.

He was perfect through four innings, with 23 strikes in 26 pitches.

Schilling walked to lead off the fourth and scored from second on Spivey’s double. When he returned to the mound to start the fifth with an 8-0 lead, he gave up a leadoff triple to Austin Kearns down the right-field line, then walked Sean Casey on four pitches.

It was only the second walk Schilling had allowed in his last six starts.

Kearns, three for four Wednesday and six for seven in his last two games, homered in the ninth. He also scored on Reggie Taylor’s groundout in the fifth.

Todd Walker tripled in the sixth and scored on Aaron Boone’s single.

The Reds, who are 63-62, have lost seven of nine to fall seven games behind first-place St. Louis and two games behind Houston in the National League Central.

Brian Moehler (2-3) lasted two innings in his shortest outing this season. He gave up six runs and seven hits.

San Francisco 3, New York 1--Kirk Rueter gave up five hits in eight shutout innings at San Francisco to help send the Mets to their 10th consecutive loss.

On the heels of consecutive shutouts by teammates Livan Hernandez and Jason Schmidt, Rueter (11-7) faced the minimum 15 batters through five innings, retiring 11 in a row at one point. He won for the fourth time in six starts with the help of four double plays.

Although Rueter bunted in the eighth and still looked strong, Manager Dusty Baker decided to abandon the chance for the Giants’ first string of three consecutive complete-game shutouts since 1960.

Robb Nen pitched the ninth but gave up two quick hits. Timo Perez scored on a wild pitch to end San Francisco’s string of 28 scoreless innings--the team’s longest since July 5-9, 1988. Nen finished for his 30th save in 37 chances.

Atlanta 6, San Diego 3--Gary Sheffield drove in five runs with two homers and a double at San Diego.

Sheffield went three for three and walked twice. He has 24 homers, second on the team behind Andruw Jones’ 26.

Right-hander Kevin Millwood (13-6) held the Padres to three runs and six hits in eight innings to win his fourth consecutive decision and improve to 11-1 in his last 18 starts. The Braves have won 16 of his last 18 starts.

Millwood struck out seven and walked three. John Smoltz needed only eight pitches to get through a perfect ninth for his major league-leading 44th save in 48 chances.

St. Louis 4, Pittsburgh 1--Chuck Finley (4-3) struck out 10 in eight innings and Scott Rolen hit a two-run triple at St. Louis.

Finley reached double figures in strikeouts for the 33rd time in his career, and for the first time since he struck out 11 Detroit Tigers on May 28, while playing for Cleveland.

Jason Isringhausen worked the ninth for his 28th save in 32 chances. He is nine for nine since the All-Star break and hasn’t given up a hit or a walk in seven games in August.

The victory was the 1,887th in 24 seasons for Manager Tony La Russa, moving him into the top 10 ahead of Hall of Famer Bill McKechnie.

Houston 4, Chicago 0--Carlos Hernandez (6-4) gave up four hits in six innings at Houston to beat Mark Prior in a matchup of rookies.

Prior (6-4) pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up four runs and 12 hits.

In his second start since returning from the disabled list Sunday, Hernandez tied a career high with eight strikeouts and walked three. It was his first victory since beating the Cubs on May 31.

He had been on the disabled list because of a sore left shoulder.

Philadelphia 13, Milwaukee 3--With rain pouring through the roof at Milwaukee’s Miller Park, Bobby Abreu homered and drove in four runs to help the Phillies tie a season high with 17 hits.

A severe thunderstorm hit the area in the fifth inning.

The stadium’s fan-shaped roof has five retractable panels, which have had problems handling rain.

Water poured through during the Home Run Derby at last month’s All-Star game.

Winds of 65 to 70 mph blew the protective flashings out of place Wednesday, allowing rain to pour in.

Montreal 13, Colorado 5--Brad Wilkerson hit two home runs for Montreal at Denver, where the Expos had a season-high six homers.

Vladimir Guerrero, Jose Vidro, Wil Cordero and pinch-hitter Matt Cepicky homered for the Expos.

Wilkerson has 17 homers, two short of the franchise rookie record held by Andre Dawson (1977) and Larry Walker (1990).