Phillies Get Snakebit in 10th

Reggie Sanders didn`t get fooled again. After striking out on a similar pitch two innings earlier, Sanders hit an 0-2 fastball for a home run in the 10th inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 Sunday.

Sanders hit his third home run of the series and Luis Gonzalez hit his 48th homer for the NL West leaders. The Phillies dropped two games behind Atlanta in the NL East. Sanders connected with one out off Cliff Politte (1-1). It was Sanders` 28th homer of the season, tying his career high set with Cincinnati in 1995.

"(Politte) struck me out on a fastball away in the previous at-bat and I figured he might go that way again in the 10th," said Sanders, who has six homers in 23 at-bats against the Phillies this season. "I just wanted to stay in a strong position and I got the pitch I wanted."

Curt Schilling pitched at Veterans Stadium for the first time since being traded from Philadelphia to the Diamondbacks in July 2000.

The crowd of 35,093 gave Schilling a warm ovation when he took the mound to start for Arizona, but the cheers turned to vintage Philly fan boos as the game progressed. Schilling pitched six innings.

"It was nice," Schilling said. "There was enough boos to let me know I was wearing a different uniform, but that`s expected."

Byung-Hyun Kim (4-3) pitched the final two innings for the victory. The Arizona bullpen of Mike Morgan, Greg Swindell, Bobby Witt and Kim allowed just one hit over four innings of work.

"Next to our bench, the bullpen has been our MVP," Schilling said.

Gonzalez hit a solo home run in the sixth, and Arizona made it 3-all in the seventh on pinch-hitter Danny Bautista`s RBI double.

Schilling allowed five hits and three runs. He struck out six and walked two.

Pat Burrell led off the Phillies` sixth with his 20th homer. Schilling tied St. Louis` Woody Williams for the NL lead for homers allowed with 32.

Nelson Figueroa, who came to the Phillies along with Travis Lee, Omar Daal and Vincente Padilla in last year`s trade for Schilling, took a shutout into the sixth before Arizona tied it on Gonzalez`s homer and Sanders` RBI single.

Philadelphia took a 2-0 lead in the third. After Schilling had struck out the first two batters, Jimmy Rollins drew a walk, Marlon Anderson blooped an RBI double and Bobby Abreu hit a run-scoring single.

Phillies manager Larry Bowa continues to search for answers for the team`s woeful offense, which has failed to score more than three runs in eight of its last nine games.

"We`ve been in a funk offensively for the last couple of weeks," he said. "We should be winning a lot more of these games. When you don`t score runs, you don`t win. That`s our problem right now."

Notes:
Arizona C Damian Miller caught Rollins attempting to steal second in the seventh. Rollins, the NL leader with 40 steals, hadn`t been thrown out in his previous 35 attempts and it was the first time he had been thrown out by a catcher this season. Rollins` previous two caught stealings were recorded on pitcher`s throws. ... Schilling`s last appearance at Veterans Stadium as a visiting player was on June 20, 1991, as a reliever with the Astros. ... Abreu has a career-high 94 RBIs. His previous best was 93 in 1999. ... Phillies 3B Scott Rolen missed his third straight game with a strained muscle in his left rib cage. ... There was a walk-up crowd of 10,350, the Phillies biggest since April 7, 1998.

(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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Author: 6 ABC - Action News