CHICAGO, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Curt Schilling became baseball's first 20-game winner Friday, dominating the Chicago Cubs for eight innings before tiring in the ninth and combining with Byung-Hyun Kim to bring the Arizona Diamondbacks a 2-1 victory.
A leading candidate along with teammate Randy Johnson for the National League Cy Young Award, Schilling retired 18 straight Cubs and appeared to be on the verge of a shutout before Sammy Sosa homered to right-center field with two outs in the ninth.
The last Cub to reach base before Sosa had been Bill Mueller, who singled in the third.
Schilling allowed a single to Fred McGriff before giving way to Kim, who gave up a bloop double to right field to put runners on first and third. But Kim got Corey Patterson to pop out to right field to earn his 29th save.
It was the second straight 20-win season for Schilling, who won a career-high 22 times last season as Arizona went on to a World Series title.
Schilling struck out 12 Cubs, including every member of the lineup at least once except Alex Gonzalez. He allowed six hits and did not walk a batter.
Rookie Steve Smyth (1-1) was the hard-luck loser, allowing two runs - one earned - and three hits in six innings.
The Diamondbacks scored single runs in the fourth and fifth, taking advantage of Chicago mistakes each time.
Tony Womack reached on an infield single in the fourth and went to second when catcher Joe Girardi threw the ball into right field. Womack moved to third on a fly ball by Quinton McCracken and scored on a sacrifice fly by Junior Spivey.
Matt Williams doubled in the fifth and went to third when right fielder Sosa misplayed a fly ball by Steve Finley. Williams scored on a wild pitch by Smyth.
