If you listened really closely, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief coming from the Arizona Diamondbacks’ dugout when Giants’ reliever Tyler Walker took the mound to start the 8th inning in San Francisco. The Diamondbacks turned their relief into runs, putting up 3 in the 8th on their way to a 5-3 victory on Saturday night.

Tim Lincecum, the Giants’ All-Star right-hander baffled the D-Backs for 6 of the 7 innings he worked in the ballgame. Arizona broke through in the 5th inning, scoring two runs on 4 hits to take a 2-1 lead. The Giants rallied back in the 6th for two runs off Brandon Webb, and regained the lead 3-2. In the other 6 innings of Lincecum’s night, he was masterful, striking out a career-high 13 Diamondbacks. With Lincecum on the bench in the 8th, Bob Melvin’s squad took advantage. Pinch-hitter Augie Ojeda started the inning with a double to deep right, and he later scored on a Chris Young sacrifice fly, which tied the score at 3-3. Conor Jackson gave the Diamondbacks the lead with a single that scored Stephen Drew. And Chad Tracy’s sacrifice fly scored Orlando Hudson to give the D-Backs’ a 2-run cushion at 5-3. Walker was booed heartily by the crowd at AT&T Park when he was replaced by Jack Taschner.

Jon Rauch pitched a perfect 8th inning, and Brandon Webb worked the 9th for his 21st save. Webb also became the first pitcher in the majors to reach 14 victories after going 7 innings in which he allowed 4 hits and 3 runs while striking out 8, which gave him over 1000 career strikeouts.

The Diamondbacks pushed their record to 52-51, going over the .500 mark for the first time since June 30th, when a 6-3 win over Milwaukee put them at 42-41.

Note: Diamondbacks’ third baseman Mark Reynolds had another tough night, going 0 for 3 with 3 strikeouts. He has struck out 9 times in his last 3 games, has a strikeout streak of 12 straight games, and has a ‘K’ in 16 of his last 17 games. Anybody else get the feeling we’ll see rookie Jamie D’Antona make his first major league start very soon?

MLB.com : Recap | Boxscore

Here’s what others are saying about the Diamondbacks 5-3 victory over the Giants…