Apr 7, 2003 3 min read

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – One day after losing by 15 runs, the Pittsburgh Pirates needed a good performance from their ace. Kris Benson delivered a gem, pitching seven shutout innings and scoring a run as the Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies 2-0 Sunday.

Benson (2-0), who allowed one unearned run in 6 1-3 innings in a season-opening win against Cincinnati, gave up six hits and a walk. He struck out six.

“I’ve got to be the guy who gets us back on track, I was definitely thinking about that going in,” Benson said about the Pirates’ 16-1 loss Saturday. “We can’t fall into ruts of losing three or four in a row.”

Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon was hoping for such a performance from Benson.

“After taking a beating like we did, he was just what we needed,” McClendon said. “He took the bull by the horns today and was outstanding with great command.”

Mike Williams pitched the ninth for his third save for the Pirates, who are off to a 5-1 start for the second straight year.

Phillies starter Brett Myers (0-1), fighting for his spot in the rotation after a poor spring, struck out a career-high 11 and gave up one run, four hits and four walks in six innings.

“Myers did a great job today but when you don’t score any runs you’re not going to win many games,” Phillies manager Larry Bowa said.

Pittsburgh’s first run was unearned in the fifth, scoring without the ball leaving the infield. With one out, Benson hit a high pop that first baseman Jim Thome dropped. Myers did not cover the bag and Benson reached on Thome’s error.

“That got them going,” said Thome. “I just dropped it and it’s unfortunate because (Myers) was pitching a good game.”

Benson then went to second on a bunt single by Kenny Lofton and a walk to Jason Kendall loaded the bases.

An RBI groundout by Brian Giles made it 1-0.

“I had a feeling that the game was going to turn on one play,” McClendon said.

“We’ve been scoring some runs this season but I’ve been telling everyone that we can play small ball too.”

The Pirates scored an insurance run in the eighth off reliever Eric Junge, called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Saturday. Kevin Young doubled to lead off the inning and one out later stole third. He then scored on a single by Pokey Reese.

The Phillies led off the eighth against Scott Sauerbeck with back-to-back singles by Jimmy Rollins and Placido Polanco, who was 3-for-4.

Bobby Abreu then flied out, moving Rollins to third, and Thome hit a slow bouncer back to Sauerbeck, who held the runner at third. Brian Boehringer came in to strike out Pat Burrell to end the threat.