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Vizquel delivers Giants a much-needed win

Jun 8, 2007 - 6:29 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Omar Vizquel singled home the winning run in the 11th inning as the San Francisco Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-4, on Thursday to avoid a three-game sweep.

Pedro Feliz led off the ninth inning with a solo homer - his eighth of the season - off Arizona closer Jose Valverde to help the Giants win for just the fourth time in 13 games and cool off the Diamondbacks, who had won 11 of 12.

"It happens," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. In that situation right there, if he's going to hit a home run off you, you want to try to make him hit it the other way, and if he does, you tip your hat to him. He's been a serious pain in our side, not just this year either."

After Arizona's Chris Young just missed a walk-off home run by a few feet on a foul blast down the left field line in the bottom of the 10th, Ray Durham drew a walk against Brandon Medders (1-2) and Feliz delivered a one-out single to left. Durham advanced to third on the play when left fielder Eric Byrnes bobbled the base hit.

Vizquel, who hit his first homer of the season in the third, then grounded a 2-2 offering from Medders through the left side, plating Durham for a 5-4 lead.

"We know they have been playing well and we haven't been playing too good on this road trip (4-6)," Vizquel said. "We are getting some tough breaks, a home run or two, or a play that makes a decision in the game, and we did good today. The pitchers came out, the bullpen did a great job and we found a couple guys on base and got good hits, put things together for us. It was a great win for us."

"It was just one of those games where it was close, basically the whole night," Arizona's Scott Hairston said. "You just have to keep battling, it's part of the game, they run a great team out there as well. We just got to keep going one day at a time, and most the time this year its been us on top, its going to happen now and then."

Jack Taschner (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings to record the win and Steve Kline logged the 11th for his first save.

"Any bullpen, your going to take your lumps," Taschner said. "The thing with this bullpen is that they have shown it before when they have given up runs, we come back, we bounce back, its part of the game."

Giants starter Noah Lowry entered with a four-game winning streak (1.35 ERA) over Arizona and a 5-1 record with a 2.36 ERA in eight career starts. But the lefthander was on the hook after yielding a first-inning homer to Conor Jackson and a two-run triple to Jackson in the fourth that provided Arizona a 4-3 lead that held until Feliz's blast.

Lowry yielded four runs and seven hits in six frames with two walks and three strikeouts.

Arizona got another strong start from Livan Hernandez, who yielded three runs and five hits in seven frames. The rotation entered with a 10-1 record and a 1.61 ERA in Arizona's previous 12 games.

Jackson's fourth homer of the season in the first opened the scoring, but Vizquel drilled a two-run shot in the third and Barry Bonds added an RBI single later in the inning for a 3-1 Giants' lead.

Bonds was 2-for-5 and remains 10 homers shy of breaking Hank Aaron's all-time record of 755 home runs.