Arizona Over Pittsburgh

There is much more to the Arizona Diamondbacks than Matt Williams, Jay Bell, Luis Gonzalez and Randy Johnson.

On Monday night, Arizona's 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates belonged to Hanley Frias, Erubiel Durazo, Omar Daal and Bobby Chouinard.

"With good teams like them," Pittsburgh's Kevin Young said, "it's a spread-the-wealth type thing."

"Me and Durazo, we come down here every day early and say `We've got to take advantage of this opportunity. We've got to work hard. We want to stay in the big leagues,"' Frias said.

The victory reduced the Diamondbacks' magic number for clinching the NL West title to 11. Any combination of 11 Arizona victories or San Francisco losses will make the Diamondbacks the first second-year team to make the playoffs.

But with 18 games to play, there is no hint of elation in the Arizona clubhouse

"We're getting the number down," Gonzalez said. "But even though we're excited, we're trying to hold it inside. We're trying to be professional about it. We don't want th fans to think we're not excited about it. If we clinch it, we'll be as excited as the rest of this city is."

Arizona's 87th victory also made the Diamondbacks baseball's most successful second-year franchise. The 1962 Los Angeles Angels won 86 games.

Daal (15-8) scattered nine hits before leaving with runners at first and third and one out in the eighth. Chouinard got Young to hit a slider into an inning-ending double play.

"That's my money pitch," Chouinard said. "That's my best pitch. I was just trying to get him to hit it on the ground, and I got lucky."

Chouinard pitched a scoreless ninth for his first career save. Arizona pitchers have allowed two runs in the last four games.

Arizona scored an unearned run in the first when Tony Womack walked, stole second and advanced to third on catcher Keith Osik's errant throw that skipped into center field. Womack scored when Gonzalez singled off the glove of pitcher Jason Schmidt (12-10).

Young tied it 1-1 in the third with a two-out home run, his 22nd homer of the season.

Frias' leadoff homer, which barely cleared the fence in front of the 376-foot sign in right field, put the Diamondbacks up 2-1 in the fourth. It was Frias' second career homer.

In the seventh, Bell singled with one out and Gonzalez grounded out, then left-handed reliever Jimmy Anderson intentionally walked Williams to pitch to Durazo, a left-handed batter who usually hasn't batted against lefties since coming to Arizona.

Durazo lofted the 1-1 pitch to a splash landing beyond the fence in right-center field.

"It's not as though we walked Williams to get to him," Pittsburgh manager Gene Lamont said. "It was the lefty-lefty matchup. I'd probably do the same thing tomorrow night."

Durazo, who was playing in the Mexican League when the Diamondbacks found him a year ago, has 10 homers in 111 at bats since being called up from Triple-A Tucson on July 25.

"I hit against a lot of leftys in the Mexican League," Durazo said. "I was just trying to hit the ball hard."

The fans cheered until Durazo came out of the dugout for a curtail call.

Durazo also figured in Pirates' third baseman Ed Sprague's ejection. Durazo led off the fifth with a double, then tagged up and advanced to third when first baseman Young leaned over the fence to catch Frias' foul ball. Umpire Charlie Williams called Durazo safe, and Sprague was ejected after arguing.

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