Schilling Shines As Phils Top Giants

Curt Schilling didn't like the way he pitched. But he had no argument with the way his defense played behind him.

Schilling pitched his major league-leading 13th complete game and the Philadelphia Phillies turned a triple play to beat the San Francisco Giants 5-4 Sunday.

"Six innings, I'm throwing great baseball, and all of a sudden, I'm struggling for my life the next two innings," said Schilling, who allowed seven hits, including two homers by Barry Bonds.

"I really didn't feel my stuff was any worse. I just wasn't making the pitches I was making in the first six. We won, so that takes a lot of the angst and the anger out of the way," added Schilling (13-12), whose five strikeouts boosted his NL-leading total to 258.

The Giants had the tying run on second with two outs in the ninth, but Schilling retired pinch hitter J.T. Snow on a groundout to end the game.

Schilling escaped another jam in the eighth with the benefit of the Phillies' first triple play since Sept. 20, 1992, against Pittsburgh.

Rich Aurilia struck out and reached first on a wild pitch. After another wild pitch moved Aurilia to second, Bonds was intentionally walked and Jeff Kent lined out to shortstop Alex Arias. Aurilia was doubled off second when Arias flipped the ball to Mark Lewis, and Bonds was caught off first when Lewis completed the triple play by relaying to first baseman Rico Brogna.

"The triple play obviously was a huge play. I fet it was the turning point of the game," Schilling said.

Arias said his catch didn't look clean, which helped catch the runners off base.

"I bobbled it a little and they didn't know where to go," Arias said. "It was a tough ball to catch. The runner (Aurilia) distracted me but fortunately I stayed with the ball."

It was the second time the Giants hit into a triple play this season. The other came against the New York Mets on Aug. 5.

"When it went off the bat, I didn't have time to think," Kent said. "I was just in shock. I hit that ball hard. What can you say."

San Francisco manager Dusty Baker saw his hopes for a big inning vanish.

"That was total misfortune," Baker said. "It was total disbelief. That's two this year. I hadn't seen two in my career."

Bonds also bemoaned the improbable nature of the play.

"What are the chances of us hitting into another triple play?" Bonds said. "We had our chances. We didn't convert. Our luck has to change."

Bonds connected for his 29th homer in the fourth and hit his 30th in the seventh, which also gave him 100 RBI. It was the seventh consecutive year Bonds has hit at least 30 home runs and marked the eighth time in the past nine seasons he has reached 100 RBI.

"I'm not concerned about those things," Bonds said. "We've got to win. We've got to put pressure on New York and Chicago (in the NL wild-card race). Individual things don't mean jack."

The Phillies were trailing 1-0 in the sixth when Schilling drew a one-out walk from Russ Ortiz (2-4) and later scored the first of four runs in the inning.

After Doug Glanville grounded out, Wendell Magee and Rico Brogna had RBI doubles around Scott Rolen's run-scoring single. Ortiz, who gave up four runs on four hits in 5 2-3 innings, intentionally walked Bobby Abreu before Julian Tavarez relieved and gave up an RBI single to Lewis.

Magee singled in the seventh to drive in his second run of the day, putting the Phillies up 5-1. But Bonds homered for the second time to start the Giants' three-run burst in San Francisco's half of the seventh.

Kent singled and scored on Ellis Burks' one-out triple. Schilling walked Bill Mueller and hit Brian Johnson with a pitch to load the bases but the Giants got only one more run in the inning on pinch-hitter Joe Carter's run-scoring groundout.

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