Sports

NL: Schmidt triumphs in pitchers duel

Associated Press
Published August 28, 2005

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SAN FRANCISCO - Jason Schmidt avenged an embarrassing loss to New York in June, outpitching Tom Glavine to help San Francisco end the Mets' five-game winning streak with a 2-1 victory Saturday.

Mike Matheny hit a run-scoring double, and Schmidt won his third straight decision for his first unbeaten month since May, when he went 1-0 in three starts.

Schmidt was on the losing end of a 12-1 defeat to the Mets on June 5 at Shea Stadium after giving up six runs in four innings. This time, he didn't allow a hit until Jose Reyes tripled to start the fourth, retiring 11 of his first 13 batters and getting through the first four innings on 55 pitches.

Armando Benitez, the third Giants pitcher, got three outs for his 250th career save.

Glavine pitched six strong innings, allowing two runs and four hits. He struck out three and didn't walk a batter for the fourth time in six starts. Glavine, who had won his prior two outings, allowed three hits in the second including Matheny's run-scoring double, then got seven straight outs.

Aside from Reyes' triple, no baserunner got past second until the seventh for the Mets, who got just four hits and remained 11/2 games behind wild-card leading Philadelphia.

CARDINALS 6, NATIONALS 0: Jason Marquis threw his first career shutout to lead visiting St. Louis.

Marquis gave up two hits, didn't walk a batter and struck out three.

The Cardinals scored four runs in four innings off Matt White, who was called up to make his first career start in the majors. David Eckstein drove in one of those runs, then added a two-run homer in the seventh off Mike Stanton.

D'BACKS 2, PHILLIES 0: Alex Cintron hit a two-run, pinch homer and Brandon Webb threw seven scoreless innings to help host Arizona snap a season-high six-game losing streak.

Jon Lieber retired his first 14 batters and blanked the Diamondbacks on three hits through six innings.

Lieber allowed two runs and five hits in 71/3 innings, striking out six, walking one and hitting a batter.

BRAVES 8, BREWERS 4: John Smoltz allowed three hits in seven strong innings for his first win this month, to lead visiting Atlanta.

Chipper Jones hit a tying two-run single in the fifth and scored the go-ahead run on Jeff Francoeur's single. Jones and Francoeur each had three hits and the Braves tied their season high with 17.

REDS 4, PIRATES 2 (10): Jose Mesa hit Edwin Encarnacion with a pitch to force in the go-ahead run, and visiting Cincinnati rallied to win.

Sean Casey led off the 10th with a single to right off Mesa. Austin Kearns followed with walk, and Javier Valentin loaded the bases with a bunt single.

After Encarnacion was plunked to give the Reds their first lead, Mesa struck out Ray Olmedo. But Felipe Lopez's sacrifice fly to center field scored Kearns, and Wily Mo Pena singled to left to score Valentin.

Reliever David Weathers allowed one hit and walked one to earn the victory.

ROCKIES 4, PADRES 2: Todd Helton hit a grand slam home run to account for all of the Rocies runs as they beat San Diego for the second night in a row. The Padres still remain 5 1/2 games in front in the West even thought they are two games under .500.

DODGERS 8, ASTROS 3: Roy Oswalt gave up five runs in the first inning and the Dodgers went ahead to win as Edwin Jackson evened his record at 1-1 despite giving up a three run homer to Chris Burke.

[Last modified August 28, 2005, 01:23:02]

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