Giants Win and Close In on Wild Card

Jason Schmidt pitched 7 1/3 innings of four-hit ball as the San Francisco Giants moved to the brink of their second playoff berth in three seasons with a 2-1 victory over the Houston Astros on Friday night at San Francisco.

The Giants (93-66) need one more victory or one loss by the Dodgers to clinch the wild card--and the National League West title still isn’t mathematically out of reach. San Francisco trails first-place Arizona by 2 1/2 games.

Benito Santiago and Kenny Lofton each drove in a run as the Giants ended Wade Miller’s 12-game winning streak, which matched the Angels’ Jarrod Washburn for the longest in the majors this season.

Schmidt (13-8) finished his regular season strong, retiring 11 straight batters at one point. He struck out eight and gave up only two hits until the eighth.

Miller (15-4) hadn’t lost in 16 starts since June 26, but he gave up nine hits, walked four and struck out five.

Rich Aurilia walked in the first and later scored on Santiago’s single. In the sixth, David Bell tripled and scored on Lofton’s hit.

Schmidt lost his shutout bid on Geoff Blum’s one-out homer into the short right-field corner in the eighth, and pinch-hitter Gregg Zaun followed with a double. Tim Worrell escaped the jam with two quick outs, and Robb Nen pitched the ninth for his 42nd save in 50 chances.

Arizona 8, Colorado 6--Miguel Batista won for the first time in more than a month, Junior Spivey homered and the Diamondbacks won at Phoenix to reduce their magic number for clinching the NL West to one. Arizona clinched a tie for first, but the Giants hold the tiebreaker because they won the season series.

The Diamondback bullpen wasted almost all of a 7-0 lead before Byung-Hyun Kim pitched a perfect ninth for his 35th save in 41 tries.

Milwaukee 2, St. Louis 1--Ben Sheets wrapped up a late-season surge with seven sharp innings, and the Brewers won at St. Louis. It was only St. Louis’ fourth loss in 23 games, ending a five-game winning streak. Milwaukee’s Jose Hernandez, one strikeout from tying Bobby Bonds’ major league record of 189 in 1970, did not play for the second consecutive game.

Pinch-hitter Eric Young doubled off Rick White (5-7) to start the eighth and advanced on a sacrifice. With the infield playing in, third baseman Scott Rolen tried to make a barehanded play on Ronnie Belliard’s high chopper and threw wildly and just a bit late to the plate as the go-ahead run scored.

Rolen, who signed a $90 million, eight-year contract extension earlier in the day, was charged with an error.

Atlanta 3-7, New York 1-4--Brave reliever John Smoltz set the NL record with his 54th save, finishing a victory over the Mets that started Atlanta to a doubleheader sweep at New York.

Chipper Jones and Darren Bragg hit two-run homers, and Javy Lopez added a three-run shot that led Atlanta to a victory in the second game, one that gave the Braves 100 wins for the fourth time in six years.

Bobby Cox became the first manager with five 100-win seasons in the NL.

Pittsburgh 13, Chicago 3--Brian Giles had the kind of game Sammy Sosa needed, hitting two homers and driving in a career-high six runs as the Pirates won at Chicago. Sosa was hitless for the third time in four games, and remains stuck on 498 career homers with only two games left in the season. He hasn’t homered since Sept. 20. Giles hit a three-run homer in the fourth and a two-run shot in the ninth. His five runs scored were the most by a Pirate since Bobby Bonilla did it against Atlanta on May 20, 1990.

Florida 5, Philadelphia 2--A.J. Burnett struck out eight and Mike Lowell and Brian Banks homered for the Marlins at Miami. Burnett gave up two runs--one earned--and four hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Florida outfielder Tim Raines will officially announce his retirement today. Raines, 43, played the final season of his 23-year major league career with Florida, where he was used mainly as a reserve and pinch hitter. Raines has 2,604 hits, 808 stolen bases and 1,565 runs scored in his career.

Montreal 4, Cincinnati 3--Cincinnati catcher Kelly Stinnett’s throwing error with two out in the 11th allowed the winning run to score as the Expos won at Montreal. The Expos won their 81st game to avoid a losing season for the first time since 1996.