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Davis, Hudson lead Diamondbacks past Marlins

Jul 24, 2007 - 6:35 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Doug Davis pitched 6 2/3 effective innings and Orlando Hudson had a homer and three RBI to help the Arizona Diamondbacks defeat the Florida Marlins, 4-3, on Monday.

Chris Snyder had two hits and an RBI for Arizona, which won its third straight game.

Davis (7-10), who leads the National League in walks allowed, struggled early. He surrendered two runs in the first on back-to-back, two-out RBI singles by Mike Jacobs and Cody Ross, giving Florida a 2-0 lead.

Davis threw 31 pitches in the frame but settled down and allowed just one more run and three hits in his last 5 2/3 innings. The lefthander finished with three runs allowed on five hits, striking out eight and walking just two.

"I was leaving the ball up in the first and they were getting pretty good wood on the ball so I made an adjustment after that," Davis said. "I was able to keep the ball down and got ahead and Hooray, I only walked two batters."

The Diamondbacks tied the game, 2-2, in the third when Augie Ojeda led off the inning with a single to left. Hudson then blasted a 421-foot homer over the center field wall with two outs off of Marlins starter Dontrelle Willis.

Florida regained the lead in the sixth on Jacobs' eighth home run of the season, a 426-foot blast to right-center field off of Davis.

Arizona answered in the bottom half of the sixth. After Chris Young led off with a double to right, Hudson followed with a soft single down the right field line. Snyder added a RBI single to left that plated Hudson to give Arizona a 4-3 advantage.

Hudson is 4-for-7 lifetime against Willis with a homer and four RBI.

"For the past few weeks we have been struggling getting runners in and losing a lot of one-run ball games," Hudson said. "Tonight we got some big hits, big two-out hits and that was big for us."

Willis (7-10) has lost his last seven decisions, the longest losing skid of his career. The former All-Star, who has not won since May 29, lasted 6 2/3 innings, giving up four runs and nine hits while striking out three and walking two.

"I thought I threw the ball good," Willis said. "I had good command but they had some timely hits. They got the hits when they needed to but I felt I made a big adjustment from the last start as far as my command."

Tony Pena, Brandon Lyon and Jose Valverde shut down the Marlins with Valverde retiring the side in order in the ninth for his 31st save, tying him with Milwaukee's Francisco Cordero for the most in the majors.

"Psychologically the advantage our bullpen gives us is when we go in that seventh inning with a lead we think we are going to win. There is no doubt about it," Diamondback manager Bob Melvin said. "You are not going to do it all the time but psychologically we feel it is our game now when we get to that point and that is what those three guys have done for us."

The Marlins had their three-game winning streak snapped and played without shortstop Hanley Ramirez.

Ramirez, who leads the National League with 132 hits, suffered a partially dislocated left shoulder in Sunday's game against Cincinnati.

"Hanley was here and got treatment the whole night," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "He will get treatment tomorrow then we will see where we are at Wednesday or Thursday."