Giants Backin the Swing of Things

Rich Aurilia, John Vander Wal and pitcher Jason Schmidt homered as San Francisco’s slumbering offense sparked a 13-5 victory over host Arizona Thursday night, preventing a three-game sweep by the Diamondbacks.

Barry Bonds went without a home run in the series to remain at 56. He singled in two at-bats and walked three times Thursday.

Schmidt, who improved to 4-1 in six starts since being acquired from Pittsburgh, also had a broken-bat, RBI single with two outs in the seventh and a sacrifice bunt that led to a run in the sixth. He scored twice.

Shawon Dunston had a pinch-hit, bases-loaded triple in San Francisco’s six-run eighth.

San Francisco had 25 base runners, 17 on hits, seven on walks and one on a hit batter.

Center fielder Steve Finley pitched a scoreless ninth inning for Arizona, the first position player ever to pitch for the Diamondbacks. The Giants pulled within 31/2 games of first-place Arizona in the NL West and stayed a half-game behind Chicago in the wild-card race.

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Montreal 4, Atlanta 2--Orlando Cabrera capped a three-run fourth inning with a go-ahead sacrifice fly as the host Braves defeated the Expos.

Atlanta, which maintained a one-game lead over Philadelphia in the NL East, has lost 11 of 15 home games and is 33-36 at Turner Field this season. The Braves are 4-6 on their 13-game homestand.

Tomo Ohka (1-2) gave up two runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings, struck out five and walked one.

Atlanta’s runs came in the second inning when Brian Jordan and B.J. Surhoff homered on consecutive pitches.

Jason Marquis (3-6) couldn’t hold the 2-0 lead. Vladimir Guerrero singled in a run, and another scored when Atlanta center fielder Andruw Jones made his fourth error of the season.

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New York 6, Philadelphia 2--Tsuyoshi Shinjo homered, tripled and drove in three runs as the Mets beat Philadelphia behind another strong outing from Steve Trachsel.

With Mike Piazza sitting out because of a nagging abdominal strain, Shinjo went three for four and scored two runs to pace the Mets’ offense at New York.

Shinjo hit a three-run homer in the first inning off David Coggin (4-4) for the Mets, who have won nine of 12. New York passed Florida to move into third place in the NL East for the first time since May 7.

Trachsel (8-11) worked seven innings, giving up four hits and striking out nine. He didn’t walk a batter, improving to 6-1 with a 2.76 ERA in nine starts.

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Houston 6, Cincinnati 1--At Houston, Roy Oswalt pitched a three-hitter and matched a team record for wins by a rookie, leading the Astros past the Reds..

Houston has won 11 of 13 and maintained a four-game lead over second-place Chicago in the NL Central.

Oswalt (12-2), who got his second complete game in 24 major-league starts, allowed a solo home run by Adam Dunn in the second, a single by Dunn in the eighth and a single by Dmitri Young in the ninth.

Oswalt struck out nine, one short of his career high, and walked none.

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Chicago 5, Florida 4--Bill Mueller hit a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth inning, and Fred McGriff hit a three-run shot as host Chicago rallied past Florida.

It was Mueller’s first home run since coming back from the disabled list Aug. 13. He missed three months after breaking his knee cap May 13 in St. Louis.

McGriff reached 80 RBIs for the 14th straight season, only the second player in major league history to do so. Hank Aaron had 17 seasons with 80 or more RBIs.

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St. Louis 13, San Diego 3--Matt Morris became the major leagues’ third 18-game winner and St. Louis scored in double figures for the second straight game, beating San Diego at St. Louis.

Jim Edmonds was six for 10 in the three-game series with two homers and eight RBIs.

St. Louis, coming off a 16-14 win, scored five runs in each of the first two innings off Junior Herndon (2-3) to take a 10-0 lead.