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  Wednesday, Aug. 2 10:05pm ET
Schilling masters Braves, Maddux again
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

PHOENIX (AP) -- With Curt Schilling on the mound, Arizona's recent hitting and bullpen woes were irrelevant.

Schilling vs. Maddux:
Past four head-to-head starts
  Schilling Maddux
Wins
4
0
ERA
1.06
1.33
Earned runs
4
4
Innings
34
27
Strikeouts
35
19
  Schilling has three complete games in past four starts vs. Maddux.

In a home debut that couldn't have been much better, Schilling shut out Atlanta for the second time this season as the Diamondbacks beat the Braves and Greg Maddux 2-0 Wednesday night.

"It's a lot of fun. This is what it's all about," Schilling said. "We went out and did what we had to do tonight against a guy who's won four Cy Youngs."

Schilling (8-6), who graduated from high school in Phoenix 15 years ago, is 2-0 since the trade that brought him back to Arizona.

Schilling, 7-2 with a 1.69 ERA in his last 10 starts, allowed six hits and retired the final 13 batters. He struck out four and walked one in his fifth complete game of the season and 15th shutout of his career.

"That's impressive," Arizona manager Buck Showalter said, "especially against a club like Atlanta."

The 33-year-old right-hander has allowed one run in 17 innings for the Diamondbacks, and is 3-0 against the Braves this season. Schilling shut out Atlanta 6-0 with Philadelphia on May 6.

"I think he was a little extra pumped for his debut," Atlanta's Brian Jordan said. "He had the crowd behind him and he did just what they brought him here to do."

Curt Schilling
Curt Schilling limited the Braves to just six hits.

Jay Bell's two-out RBI double in the third inning provided Schilling with the only run he needed. Matt Williams drove in Bell with a single for the second run.

Maddux (12-6) lost his third straight decision. He gave up two runs on five hits in six innings. He struck out five and walked two, one intentionally.

"It was a good duel," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "Maddux is not going to pitch better than that."

Maddux said Schilling wasn't at his best.

"He threw better against us the first two times (this season)," Maddux said. "He threw good tonight, no question. But I don't think that was his 'A' game. That tells you how good he is."

With just their third victory in 10 games, Arizona climbed back into a virtual tie with San Francisco for first place in the NL West.

Schilling said with the Diamondbacks struggling at the plate and in the bullpen, the starters have to pick up the slack.

"If we're not going to score runs, we still have to win," Schilling said. "Regardless of the fact our offense is struggling, they're going to hit. But if we don't score a lot of runs, that really is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned, because we still have to win. If we don't win, we're not going to go where we want to go."

The Diamondbacks, batting just .220 with two outs and runners in scoring position this season, scored both of their runs with two outs in the third.

Tony Womack had perhaps the biggest at-bat of the night. With two outs, after fouling off several pitches, Womack walked on Maddux's 3-2 pitch, then stole second, his 22nd steal of the season.

"In my mind, Tony Womack makes the game today," Schilling said. "Guys behind him got big hits, but two outs and nobody on he works on base, and Tony's in scoring position once he's on first. He runs a pitcher, and one of the things you can do on Greg is run."

Bell, hitless in his previous four games and batting just .173 since July 1, doubled to right-center to drive in Womack. Williams followed with an RBI single to left.

"That was something that we did a lot of last year, and certainly that's the objective again this year," Bell said. "We haven't really clicked as a team offensively this year, and hopefully a game like tonight will jump-start us throughout the rest of the season."

Arizona right fielder Jason Conti threw out Jordan trying to move from first to third on B.J. Surhoff's single with no outs in the second.

Atlanta had runners on first and second with one out in the fourth and fifth innings, but both threats were wiped out by double plays. Paul Bako grounded to first to start the first one, Chipper Jones grounded one to shortstop to start the second.

Schilling and Maddux have opposed each other as starters seven times. Schilling has won the last four, Maddux won the first three. The two had squared off since April 10, 1998.

Game notes
Bell was back in the No. 2 spot in the batting order after being dropped to either No. 6 or 7 the previous three games. ... Schilling threw 105 pitches, 77 of them strikes. ... The Braves failed to take advantage of errors by Bell at second base in the first and Womack at shortstop in the second. ... The crowd of 40,643 put Arizona over the 2 million mark, the ninth major league club to do so this season.
 


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 Curt Schilling felt Tony Womack was the key to victory against the Braves.
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