Slightly late update this week, since I was in California for a couple of days. I’ll cover this weekend’s games too, so that’ll make my next update a good bit shorter! In the nine games played since I last wrote, the Diamondbacks were an impressive 7-2: they took two games from Pittsburgh and, though dropping the series to Colorado in Phoenix, roared back to a four-game sweep of the Astros at Chase over the weekend. They still sit in third-place, but are now only one game back of the Dodgers and Padres, who are tied for the division lead.

AZ 9, Pirates 8 One of the most amazing comebacks in Arizona history led to victory being snatched from the jaws of defeat. The Diamondbacks were 7-1 down by the end of the third, and still trailed by five going into the seventh inning. However, a solo homer by Jackson got us within four, and after a single, sandwiched between two walks, Tony Clark delivered the necessary grand-slam, the third of his thirteen-year career, to tie the game.

Carlos Quentin gave us the lead with a two-run single in the eighth, and though the Pirates got the tying run to second in the eighth, they couldn’t come back. The recovery saved Micah Owings from a very poor outing: he didn’t escape the third, allowing seven earned runs on six hits and an uncharacteristic four walks. The bullpen limited Pittsburgh to one run over the remaining 6.1 innings, allowing the offense the chance to steal this. Stephen Drew and Mark Reynolds had three hits each, with Conor Jackson and Robbie Hammock adding two each.

AZ 5, Pirates 2 Randy Johnson got his second win of the season, striking out ten Pittburgh hitters in only 5.2 innings of work. He allowed a run in the first, but Johnson then retired the next eleven batters he faced. He did struggle in the sixth, and was relieved by Tony Peña with two outs. Peña, Brandon Lyon and Jose Valverde combined to retire all ten hitters they faced, taking only 35 pitches to get through the final 3.1 innings.

All the Diamondbacks scoring came through a pair of crooked numbers in the third and fourth. A sacrifice fly by Drew tied the score at one, and Jackson’s RBI single gave Arizona the lead for good. The game was blown open in the fourth, after back-to-back walks to Carlos Quentin and Scott Hairston helped load the bases. Chris Snyder unclogged them on the first pitch he saw from Paul Maholm, his three-run double one of three hits for our catcher in the game. Jackson and Eric Byrnes had a pair each.

AZ 6, Rockies 5 An eighth-inning leadoff triple by Orlando Hudson, and a sacrifice fly by Quentin, proved the final margin of victory for Arizona, in a see-saw contest which saw Arizona blow a lead, and Colorado three of their own. Brandon Webb struggled again facing the Rockies, surrendering five runs on eight hits and four walks over seven innings. The teams traded solo homers in the second: Hawpe, who has owned Webb this year, got the Rockies on the board first, until Clark tied things up.

Colorado scored again in the third, before Quentin’s three-run shot had given Arizona a 4-2 lead in the fourth. We held onto that until the top of the seventh, but Colorado scored three times to take the lead off a struggling Webb. It took Quentin’s second long-ball, a lead-off homer in the bottom half off former D-backs closer Jorge Julio, to level the score. He then added his fifth RBI in the eighth: he had two hits, while Snyder had his second consecutive three-hit appearance for Arizona.

AZ 1, Rockies 3 A sterling performance from Livan Hernandez proved to be all for nothing, as Brandon Lyon gave the Rockies two runs in the ninth. It was a rare poor outing for Lyon, who has only allowed five earned runs in 22 innings of work this season. Not that it will be much comfort to Hernandez who baffled the Rockies with eight innings of one-run ball; he scattered nine hits, but walked only one hitter, striking out eight. He threw 125 pitches, tied for fourth-most in the majors this season so far.

Meanwhile, the offense struggled mightily, getting lost in the Fogg - Josh Fogg that is, who clearly loves facing Arizona. In three games, his ERA against us is 2.50; versus everyone else, it’s 5.55. This time, we managed only one run, that coming on a sacrifice fly, and were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Conor Jackson had two hits, while Orlando Hudson walked three times. However, as a team, we had just six hits.

AZ 0, Rockies 2 Despite our offensive indifference in May, this was the first time Arizona had been shut out this season. As against Fogg, we made another mediocre pitcher, Jeff Francis, look very good: 2007 ERA vs. AZ = 1.38; vs. anyone else = 4.78. He kept us off the board for seven innings, with Corpas and Fuentes holding us down the rest of the way. Mark Reynolds had three hits, which is as many as the rest of the side combined.

Doug Davis was the “unlucky” loser: he allowed only two runs in his seven innings, but was doomed by the lack of run support. Over his ten starts, we’ve scored exactly three runs per game, which is why his record is 2-6, despite a decent 3.57 ERA. That’s more than 30% lower than the next-best six game loser (Lohse, CIN, 5.31). Brandon Medders pitched two hitless innings of relief, and even rarer, allowed no home-runs…

AZ 9, Astros 1 Score early, score often. That was the key to the Diamondbacks’ success; they got four runs in the first, and never looked back. Four separate players had RBI in the opening inning, as we pounded out five hits, four for extra-bases. Byrnes added a run in the third, and we scored three more with two outs in the fifth. That was sweet revenge, because the Astros hit Jackson earlier that inning, in what seemed to be payback for a Micah Owings pitch which came close to hitting their star, Craig Biggio.

Owings bounced back brilliantly from his previous poor outing to pitch his first complete game in the majors, in only his eighth appearance - matching the performance of Daisuke Matzusaka. He threw 118 pitches, and scattered nine hits, but walked only one Astros batter, and struck out eight of them. He got plenty of support, with Byrnes having a three-hit night and Drew driving in three runs: Jackson and Hudson both had two-hit games.

AZ 13, Astros 3 That was just a warm-up, however, for Friday night, where the Diamondbacks reached double-figures for the first time this year. It might surprise you to learn this was fairly close until the sixth: Arizona had a 4-2 lead going into the bottom half of the frame, but exploded for eight runs, tying a franchise high, and sending twelve men to the plate. That included relief pitcher Peña, who had his first-ever RBI, but the offensive star was Mark Reynolds (left, being congratulated by Peña), who enjoyed a five-hit night in only his tenth career game, the fastest major-league rookie to do so since Junior Spivey - also for the Diamondbacks - back in 2001.

Quentin had three hits, while Drew and Scott Hairston had two-hit nights. All that production helped make a winner of Edgar Gonzalez, who was making a spot start because of Randy Johnson’s forearm tendinitis. Despite not having started in almost a month, he gave us five solid innings, with the Astros only scoring once. The bullpen was not brilliant, allowing six hits and two walks in four innings, but it was good enough. Though, to be honest, when you get 13 runs of support, Mark Grace pitching should be good enough…

AZ 5, Astros 4 After scoring twenty-two runs in the previous two games, normal service was resumed with the Diamondbacks pulling out their thirteenth one-run victory in 28 wins [as a contrast, we managed only 22 all last year] This one was close, with no more than one run separating the teams almost the whole way. Houston scored first, catching Brandon Webb early, but he then got his game on, pitching seven innings of two-run ball, striking out eight and only walking one.

Arizona scored twice in the third, Snyder doubling in the tying run, then coming home to score on a sacrifice fly. The team traded sacrifice flies in the sixth, before the Diamondbacks had their key hit - a two-run double by Byrnes gave them enough room to withstand Tony Peña giving up a two-run homer to Carlos Lee. Jose Valverde came in for the ninth, and notched his major-league leading eighteenth save. Arizona managed just seven hits, two for Snyder, and were undoubtedly helped by some weak base-running from the opposition.

AZ 8, Astros 4 The Diamondbacks completed their sweep, sending the Houston Dis-Astros to their eighth straight loss, and beating Roy Oswalt for the first time in his career. As in Saturday’s game, Houston got on the board first, but a two-run homer by Quentin gave the lead to the home team. It was close until the seventh when Oswalt failed to retire the first three hitters he faced, and his bullpen again coughed up more runs, letting four Arizona men cross the plate.

Meanwhile, Livan Hernandez pitched his first complete game since 2005. It was far from dominant - he allowed eleven hits - but four of those did come in the ninth inning, when he was clearly tiring. He only struck out two, but walked none, and regularly made the Astros look bad with his flummoxing sub-60 mph curves, combined with a low-80’s fastball. As a clinic on the subject of “It’s not what you’ve got, it’s how you use it,” this was hard to beat. Six D-backs hitters had multi-hit games, as we pounded out fourteen all told.

News and Notes
Soaring: Mark Reynolds (16-for-34, 10 RBI, 3 HR); Carlos Quentin (11-for-30, 13 RBI); Micah Owings (9 IP, 1 ER); Jose Valverde (4 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 4 saves). Falling: Orlando Hudson (6-for-27, 1 RBI); Stephen Drew (10-for-37); Brandon Lyon (4 IP, 2 ER, Loss); Brandon Webb (14 IP, 15 H, 5 BB, 7 ER).

Injury Report: Randy Johnson missed a start due to forearm tendinitis, but is on track to pitch versus the Phillies on Wednesday. Chris Young appears to have recovered from his groin issue, while Chad Tracy (ribcage) has still to take batting practice and would seem to be at least 7-10 days from being ready again. Tony Clark needed two stitches in his chin after eating some dirt on Saturday, yet should be available for tonight. However, Jeff DaVanon’s return from offseason labrum surgery has been setback, and the team has no idea when he’ll be back: “We’re back to square one,” said manager Bob Melvin.

The Week Ahead: Well, what’s left of it, anyway… Arizona heads back east, to face NL East rivals the Phillies and Mets, each in three-game series, with an off-day Thursday. This starts a tough stretch for the Diamondbacks, with ten of the next thirteen games against teams with winning records - and even after that finishes, the next team we face are the Yankees! If you remember last year, June totally derailed our pennant hopes and we slumped from first to last thanks to a streak where we lost 20 of 23 games. Hopefully we can avoid that happening this year.

Get Your MOJO on: If you’ve got HD television, you should check out the upcoming series called The Show. It follows six members of the 2006 Tucson Sidewinder, including Young and Quentin, through the season: at least we know it’ll have a happy ending! It starts on Wednesday night: see MOJO’s site for more details.

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