Batista Launches Two In D'Backs' Win

Tony Batista is trying to smash his way into a full-time starting spot for Arizona.

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In the past eight days, he's hit Arizona's first-ever pinch-hit homer and hit a two-run shot off Chicago's Kerry Wood. In all, Batista has homered in four of his last five games.

Batista's ninth and 10th homers marked the second time he has hit two in a game. He also did it on Aug. 26, 1996, in Baltimore when he was with the Oakland A's.

"I'm just taking my opportunities and trying to do my best," he said. "Everything is going great right now. I hope they can see that and give me more opportunities."

Both of his homers against the Phillies came on first pitches. He hit a two-run shot off Mark Portugal in the sixth inning and a solo homer off reliever Ricky Bottalico in the eighth.

"Tony's always had that potential. He's showed it before in his career," Arizona manager Buck Showalter said. "So it's there and he's been doing it and it's the type of thing that leads to more opportunities."

Jay Bell, who also had a solo homer in the eighth, and Devon White each went 3-for-4 for the Diamondbacks.

Arizona tagged Portugal (6-3) for 10 hits, five of them in a four-run sixth inning.

"He fell apart in a hurry," Phillies manager Terry Francona said. "I thought he had been throwing the ball pretty well."

The Phillies lost for the 11th time in 13 games and fell to 2-6 on their 12-game road trip.

Andy Benes (10-11) had a double and scored a run to help his cause. Hhas won three in a row, the previous two on the road. The Diamondbacks have scored 25 runs in those three wins.

Benes shut out the Phillies through six innings, but gave up three runs on four singles, a walk and wild pitch in the seventh. Still, he won at home for the first time since May 17 -- six starts ago -- giving up three runs and eight hits in 6 2-3 innings.

"Tonight we did a good job offensively. If you give up three runs as a starter, you've got a pretty good chance of winning, but I wouldn't look at it as being a great game," Benes said. "I'm happy with the way I threw for six innings, but not after that."

Willie Banks relieved Benes with two outs in the seventh and retired four batters in a row, then Gregg Olson came on in the ninth.

Benes led off the third with a hit to short left field, barely sliding in ahead of Mark Lewis' tag at second for his second double of the season.

Andy Fox followed with a single to center, with Benes scoring from second with a head-first slide just under catcher Bobby Estalella's tag to put the Diamondbacks up 1-0.

Benes didn't think much of his base running.

"It was embarrassing. I was running out of gas," he said. "They told me to slide but it didn't register so I just dove. It wasn't pretty. I guarantee you I won't be watching any replays."

White led off the sixth with a double to almost the same spot as Benes' hit, then scored on Karim Garcia's single to right field. Bell doubled into the gap in right-center, scoring Garcia from first to make it 3-0.

Bell moved to third on a ground-out, then Batista hit Portugal's first pitch into the left-field seats and it was 5-0.

Rico Brogna, who earlier in the day agreed to a $3.2 million, one-year contract extension, led off the seventh with a single. Estalella walked and, after Bobby Abreu popped out, Lewis singled to load the bases.

Brogna scored on Benes' wild pitch and, with two outs, Bell made a diving stop of pinch-hitter Kevin Jordan's grounder to shortstop but couldn't get off a throw, allowing Estalella to score to cut the lead to 5-2. Doug Glanville singled under Travis Lee's diving attempt at first to score Lewis, and Benes was finished.

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