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Webb wins 17th, Diamondbacks top Braves

Aug 11, 2008 - 12:14 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Brandon Webb won his fourth straight start and added a two-run double to help the Arizona Diamondbacks snap a four-game home losing streak with a 6-1 triumph over the Atlanta Braves on Sunday.

Webb (17-4), the 2006 Cy Young Award winner, allowed one run in six innings, giving up six hits and a walk while striking out five. The righthander leads the National League with his 17 wins and is tied for the major league lead with Cleveland's Cliff Lee, who also won on Sunday.

The win total for Webb is one shy of his career high set last season, when he finished second to Jake Peavy of the San Diego Padres in the NL Cy Young voting.

"Brandon Webb has got unbelievable stuff, probable Cy Young winner again, he's just awfully, awfully tough," Atlanta's Chipper Jones said. "We had a chance to get to him there in the sixth, he got out of it with a double play. That's what he does, he's not going to give up hit after hit."

Atlanta loaded the bases with nobody out, but Webb surrendered just a sacrifice fly by Omar Infante before getting Jeff Francoeur to hit into an inning-ending double play.

"The sixth inning took some out of him, he was beat after that, at least in my estimation." Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "Early runs and Brandon Webb on the mound usually end up being all good in the end."

The Diamondbacks did not wait long to stake the two-time All-Star to an early lead. Mark Reynolds drove in two with a double and scored on an RBI groundout by Chris Young in Arizona's three-run first inning off Mike Hampton (1-1).

"Give Webbie an early lead, he went out there and did his thing, you got into jams and pitched out of them, it was just what we needed," Reynolds said. "It's tough to play catch-up, but we got out early today and Webbie was able to go out there and throw sinkers, get a lot of ground-ball outs and did his job."

Chris Snyder led off the bottom of the second inning with a home run, his 10th, to push the lead to 4-0.

A career .111 hitter, Webb helped his own cause in the fourth inning. With Jamie D'Antona on second and two out, Hampton intentionally walked Chris Burke. Webb laced a double to deep center to score D'Antona and Burke, stretching the lead to 6-0. Hampton retired Stephen Drew on a groundout to conclude his day.

The lefthander, making his fourth start of the season after being sidelined since August 2005 due to a series of arm injuries, allowed six runs and five hits with two walks, striking out three over four innings.

"I made some terrible pitches with some guys in scoring position," Hampton said. "I can just tell now my body feels a ton better. It took these full four days to get ready for this one, was just kind of achey and sore throughout, but coming out of this my body feels pretty strong."

After Webb departed, Chad Qualls and Joe Rauch combined to allow one hit in three scoreless innings.

The Diamondbacks (60-58) hold a 1 1/2-lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers (58-59) in the NL West.

Infante had two hits and the lone RBI for the Braves, who had won the first three games of the series.