Arizona Advances NL Championship Series for the First Time

The opponent of the St. Louis Cardinals in this ML division series was not the Arizona Diamondbacks, but Curt Schilling (35).

How many points could the Cardinals earn from the magnificent pitcher who has thrown the 158-km frightful fast balls with the perfect ball control from the first inning to the ninth inning? Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said, ``Schilling was great out there. When a guy does that kind of job, the loss is easier to take.``

With a complete start of ace Curt Schilling, the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the St. Louis Cardinals to advance the NL Championship Series for the first time since the team was established in 1998.

The Arizona captured a 2-1 win yesterday with a game-ending blooper of Tony Womack in the bottom of ninth of the division series game five at Bank One Ballpark.

A hero of this game was Curt Schilling. Schilling, who had earned a complete game with just three hits in game one, threw splendidly for nine innings allowing just 6 hits and 1 ER with 9 strikeouts even in game five. As he allowed just one run for 18 innings of two playoff games, Schilling recorded two wins with 0.50 ERA.

Cardinal pitcher Matt Morris, Schilling`s contester in game one and five, also made a remarkable start allowing just 2 runs for 15 innings of two games, but he had to taste the bitterness of defeat with the lack of offensive help.

The game five was the best one in the ML division series elevating the breathless excitement. The Arizona was leading the game with a solo homer of Reggie Sanders in the fourth inning, but the St. Louis made the game a scratch thanks to a game-tying solo homer of J. D. Drew in the eighth inning.

As the Arizona loosed off Randy Johnson in the bullpen, the game was likely to get into the extra innings. But the game was decided dramatically in the bottom of the ninth. The victory was signaled by a double of Matt Williams, who has fell into the slump with no hit at 15 bats in the playoffs.

The runners were on the first and the second, combining a sacrifice bunt and a base-on-balls. As the third base runner was ousted by a squeeze bunt failure of Tony Womack, the chance was likely to be blown out. However, Womack hit a looper single in front of the left fielder to give his team a ticket for the Championship Series. Kim Byung-Hyun did not pitch in this game.

In the AL division series, the New York Yankees won a 9-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics at Oakland to move to the final game. The Seattle Mariners also will play the game five to decide the winner of the division series, defeating 6-2 the Cleveland Indians.

Kim Sang-Soo ssoo@donga.com