• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Davis effective as Diamondbacks snap slide, edge Padres

Jul 14, 2007 - 6:23 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- The Arizona Diamondbacks turned to the recently struggling Doug Davis to help snap a season-high losing streak.

Davis pitched six effective innings and Chris Snyder delivered a late two-run single as the Diamondbacks posted an 8-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday.

Chad Tracy and Conor Jackson each had RBI doubles and rookie Jeff Salazar made a highlight-reel catch for Arizona, which had dropped five straight and eight of nine.

The win also helped the Diamondbacks close to within 2 1/2 games of the National League West Division-leading Padres.

"It's a good win for us coming off not the best stretch in the world," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "Given the fact that we haven't been hitting and were facing the best pitching team in baseball, there was a lot of relief in the fact that we got some quality at-bats early on and drove in some runs."

Davis (6-10) yielded two runs, five hits and three walks to earn just his second win in the last seven starts. The lefthander, who struck out two, had lost his last two outings and was just 1-4 with a 7.03 ERA over his previous six.

"I had full control of all my pitches in the first three innings," Davis said. "I got into some trouble in the fourth inning, maybe tried a little too hard. The walks, that is the only thing I wasn't happy with. Because of the walks, I had to make too many pitches."

Leading, 4-3, in the seventh, Arizona did its damage with two outs. Snyder hit a two-run single off reliever Cla Meredith to increase the advantage to 6-3, and pinch hitter Tony Clark followed with an RBI single.

Mark Reynolds added a sacrifice fly in the eighth to finish the scoring.

The Diamondbacks started fast as first-inning doubles by Tracy and Jackson produced a 2-0 lead. Stephen Drew followed with a run-scoring single off Greg Maddux to increase the advantage.

Tracy, who had two hits, is 7-for-14 lifetime against Maddux.

Maddux (7-7) continues to be baffled by Arizona. The future Hall of Famer, who has 340 career victories, is a dismal 1-10 lifetime against Arizona, including an 0-6 mark at Chase Field.

"I don't know why it is like that," Maddux said. "I have no idea why, do you? They hit me. I didn't get away with any mistakes. I pitched halfway descent, then I'd make a bad pitch with two strikes and they got me. I felt good, this was the best I've felt. The balls weren't slick or nothing, I just missed location and got hit."

In this one, the 41-year-old righthander allowed four runs, nine hits and a walk. His only win vs. the Diamondbacks came on September 7, 2000, when he was a member of the Atlanta Braves.

"I think (Maddux's record) probably speaks for itself," Padres manager Bud Black said. "Tonight, I think his stuff was good, just missed location. When you miss location, you're going to get hit no matter what ballpark you pitch in. I think it was more a function of not hitting his spots than the ballpark or the ballclub."

After Milton Bradley put San Diego on the board with an RBI single in the fourth, Eric Byrnes answered with a run-scoring base hit in the bottom of the frame to make it 4-1.

Kevin Kouzmanoff led off the fifth with a solo homer on a 2-1 count from Davis to halve the deficit, but further damage was averted.

One out after Kouzmanoff's blast, Brian Giles hammered a drive to deep right field. Salazar, who went 3-of-4 at the plate and had played in only three other games, raced back to the warning track and jumped up, bracing himself on the chain-link fence.

The 26-year-old then reached high over the fence, robbing Giles of his second homer of the season.

"A lot of times, you run back there and the ball is 30 rows deep, but you give a courtesy run," Salazar said. "I ran back there and saw that I had a shot at it. I have tried those a hundred times in my career but came up empty a lot. But this one hit the mitt and stuck. I had to check the mitt to see if it was in there."

Kouzmanoff had three hits for the Padres, who are now tied for first with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.