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Young's power helps Webb complete gem

May 12, 2007 - 6:01 AM HOUSTON (Ticker) -- While the Arizona Diamondbacks' offense has not been giving its pitchers much breathing room of late, Brandon Webb does not require a lot of support, especially when rookie Chris Young is impressing his hometown fans.

Webb tossed a six-hitter and Young homered twice as the Diamondbacks downed the Houston Astros, 3-1, in the opener of a three-game series at Minute Maid Park on Friday.

Arizona has scored no more than four runs in 10 consecutive games and has not supported its ace with many runs, either. This contest was the fifth time in Webb's last six appearances the Diamondbacks have provided three runs of support or less.

But Young, who was playing in front of family and friends, gave Webb more than enough margin for error.

"There were 52 (friends and family) out here tonight and that is just the people that I know of," Young said. "I saw a lot of other friends that I just happened to see throughout the stadium as well. It feels great to do that in front of so many people that want to see you do well. It really makes you proud."

The 23-year-old rookie delivered his second two-homer performance of the season for Arizona, beginning the power display with a solo shot in the third inning off Astros starter Chris Sampson (3-3). A native of Houston, Young belted another solo blast in the seventh to give the Diamondbacks a 3-0 lead.

"Coming home like that sure was nice," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said regarding Young. "He really had his own cheering section of 50 or 60 people. That had to be really nice for him."

Webb (3-2) continued his mastery of the Astros, allowing just a ninth-inning run and one walk while striking out 10. The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner improved to 3-1 with a 1.42 ERA in six career starts against Houston and has yet to allow more than two runs in any of them.

"I don't really know their hitters (all) that well, but I have just been lucky enough to fare that well against them," Webb said. "There is no particular reason, really, it just sometimes kind of works out that way. Tonight, I just had pretty good stuff."

"You score a couple of runs and just turn it over to Webb; that is the formula," Melvin said. "The pitch count got a little dicey there in the ninth inning and had he needed one more batter, I probably would have gone out there and got him. But he deserved to finish a game like that and he wanted the ball."

Chad Tracy had three hits and a RBI for the Diamondbacks, who won for just the second time in eight road games.

Sampson surrendered three runs, eight hits and four walks in seven innings. He struck out two for the Astros, who have dropped two straight following a three-game winning streak.

"He (Sampson) wasn't as good as we've seen him," Astros manager Phil Garner said. "He had a couple of points in the game where he was flying open. But it wasn't a bad outing for him. He battled and that is what you want to see when a guy doesn't have his best stuff."

Carlos Lee scored the lone run on a RBI groundout by rookie Hunter Pence for Houston, which fell to 6-9 at home.

"For Webb, it's the movement of his pitches," Lee said. "He is definitely one of the guys that I can see the ball well against. But he changes speed well and throws everything for strikes."

The Astros managed to put runners in scoring position with two outs in both the fifth and six innings, but Webb got Craig Biggio to ground out and Hunter Pence to line out to end those respective innings.