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Diamondbacks throttle Rockies for seventh straight win

Apr 12, 2008 - 6:47 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- After the way last season ended, the Arizona Diamondbacks are clearly hoping to bury to the Colorado Rockies early.

Brandon Webb tossed his eight solid innings and Eric Byrnes homered and scored twice to propel the Arizona Diamondbacks to their seventh straight win - an 8-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Friday.

Colorado, which swept Arizona in four games of last season's National League Championship Series, celebrated its 2007 World Series berth last week with pregame festivities before each game against the Diamondbacks.

Arizona responded with a three-game sweep in which it outscored the Rockies, 20-5, and continued the offensive fireworks on Friday.

"We play them so many times," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "Probably the first couple of games in Colorado (there was some revenge), but now it is just business. It seems like there is nowhere to hide in our lineup. Everybody is getting decent swings and contributing to it.

"It doesn't last forever, but during this stretch we have been pretty good about getting good pitches to hit and we don't miss them now."

Webb (3-0), who has already defeated Colorado twice this season, allowed two runs and four hits with a walk and six strikeouts.

"This is the best I felt in a long time," Webb said. "I had almost all my pitches working and when I needed them they were there.

"They still (take) the same approach against me but I was able to utilize all my pitches, really mixing it up. I had a real good curveball, good changeup and pretty good sinker. I thought I had a lot of life on it and got a lot of ground-ball outs and some strikeouts."

For the first time in his career, Webb won his third straight decision to begin the season, inducing the Rockies into 13 ground-ball outs.

"It is like trying to catch a chicken," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "Every time you have a bead on it, it was gone," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "His changeup was a big pitch especially against (our) lefthanders. His big hook also came into play. He was very, very good tonight."

After Colorado knotted the game at 1-1 on a sacrifice fly by Garrett Atkins in the second, Byrnes took a changeup from Rockies starter Jeff Francis (0-2) over the fence for his second home run of the season.

Arizona, which has already hit 20 homers this season, continued its home run prowess in the fifth.

Following a two-out walk to Byrnes, Orlando Hudson belted a slider from Francis into the seats in left-center for his second home run of the campaign and a 5-1 advantage.

"You always try to make solid contact and put together some good at-bats," Hudson said. "It is still early and we do have seven straight wins, so let's ride the wave while it is high.

"It is only nine games in and you are going to be coming back in two months to me and asking what the heck is going on ... what happened after the first two weeks of the season?"

Matt Holliday gave Colorado some brief hope in the top of the sixth when he recorded an RBI single to trim the lead to 5-2, but Justin Upton took any kind of momentum away and concluded Francis' evening with his fourth homer of the season - a two-run blast.

Francis, who has surrendered six homers in his two starts against the Diamondbacks, allowed seven runs and seven hits for the Rockies, who saw their three-game winning streak come to an end.

After yielding a total of six runs over three starts to the Arizona Diamondbacks last season, Francis has been pounded for 12 runs in his only two starts of the season - both against Arizona - including six home runs.

"They have hit the ball really well against me the last two times out and I haven't made good enough pitches," Francis said. "I have to adjust because it comes down to I haven't made good enough pitches. (I have) fallen behind in counts, missing off the plate, I am not executing the pitches I want to.

"When I don't pitch well, I like to think it is something I can do about. Sometimes, you make pitches and get beat but that is not what I am seeing. There are a lot of things I can do better. There is no question that they are a good team but I think I am a better pitcher than that."

Holliday had two hits and also scored for Colorado.