May 14, 2002 3 min read

PITTSBURGH (AP) – Curt Schilling pitched seven shutout innings to become the majors’ first eight-game winner, and Luis Gonzalez drove in four runs as Arizona ruined Kris Benson’s return to Pittsburgh’s rotation in an 11-0 rout Monday night. Schilling (8-1) was smooth and efficient – or everything Benson wasn’t – in beating the Pirates for the second time in six days. He struck out 11, walked none and allowed four hits.

Gonzalez had a homer, double and single as Arizona led 9-0 by the fourth inning, but went hitless in his final two at-bats to miss the triple he needed to hit for the cycle for the second time in three seasons.

Otherwise, the Diamondbacks hit just about everything Benson (0-1) threw up in his long-awaited but short-lived initial start since missing last season for reconstructive elbow surgery. Benson was on a 95-pitch limit, but fell 20 pitches short after yielding nine runs, seven earned, on 10 hits in 3 2-3 innings.

Benson had been out so long – 19 months – that his last start came in Three Rivers Stadium, which the Pirates closed two seasons ago. But this certainly wasn’t the return that Pittsburgh’s top starter wanted, especially after he and his wife, Anna, rented an overflowing private suite to entertain 40-plus family and friends who gathered for his comeback.

Benson found himself trailing 2-0 after only three batters as Danny Bautista singled to short and Gonzalez hit his eighth homer into the right-field seats. Last year, Gonzalez was only 1-for-9 as Arizona lost two of three games in PNC Park.

Benson, and the Pirates’ defense, fell apart in a four-run third that included Gonzalez’s RBI double, Chris Donnels’ two-run double and two of the Pirates’ season-high four errors. Left fielder Brian Giles drew an error when, after a long run, he dropped Steve Finley’s fly ball.

Despite the ugly start to an ugly, rainy night that saw the start delayed for 2 hours, 7 minutes, Benson stayed around to give up three more runs in the fourth on Gonzalez’s RBI single and Mark Grace’s two-run single before being lifted.

With so big a lead, Schilling pitched on cruise control the rest of the way while striking out 10 or more for the fifth time this season and the 68th time in his career.

Since giving up Craig Wilson’s three-run homer in the first inning of Arizona’s 4-3 victory Wednesday, Schilling has shut out the Pirates for 15 innings on seven hits.

Pirates third baseman Aramis Ramirez (sprained right ankle) started for the first time in 22 games, but went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts before being lifted.

NOTES: Rain has fallen just before or during 10 of the Pirates’ 19 home games. … Because many in the announced crowd of 14,500 left before the first pitch at 9:12 p.m. EDT, Benson pitched before more fans (8,500) at Double-A Reading, Pa., in his last rehabilitation start on Tuesday. … The Pirates have lost 13 of 19. Maybe it was a bad omen that, during the rain delay, they showed their 1986 highlight film – a season they lost 98 games.