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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 4:34 p.m., Friday, August 17, 2007

Baseball: Arizona's Webb scoreless streak at 42 inn.

By Paul Newberry
Associated Press

ATLANTA — Brandon Webb pitched his third straight shutout and stretched his scoreless streak to 42 innings, tossing a two-hitter to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks past the Atlanta Braves 4-0 today.

Webb became the first pitcher since Orel Hershiser in 1988 to go at least 40 innings without giving up a run and just the 21st pitcher in baseball history to reach that level of stinginess.

It's not like the Diamondbacks are scoring a lot of runs for Webb (13-8). His previous start was a five-hit, 1-0 win over Washington, and he was clinging to another 1-0 lead when Mark Reynolds gave Arizona some breathing room with a mammoth two-run homer off Lance Cormier in the eighth.

Chris Young has his second two-homer game of the week. He went deep leading off the third against Atlanta starter Lance Cormier (0-3), then added his 24th homer of the season off Tyler Yates in the ninth.

Webb started his streak nearly a month ago. He didn't allow a run in the final inning of his July 20 start against the Chicago Cubs, a 6-2 loss. He's won five in a row since then, going seven innings apiece in wins over Florida and San Diego before beginning his stretch of shutouts with a 3-0 win at the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Nineteen years ago, Hershiser was with the Dodgers when he set the record of 59 straight scoreless innings. Webb, last year's NL Cy Young winner, is now tied with Rube Foster for the 12th-longest streak in baseball history.

"He's not Cy Young from last year for nothing," Braves manager Bobby Cox said before the game.

Since 1940, only Don Drysdale (58), Bob Gibson (47) and Sal Maglie (45) have longer scoreless innings streaks.