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Dunn homers as Diamondbacks hold off Padres

Aug 20, 2008 - 6:05 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Adam Dunn homered in his home debut for the Arizona Diamondbacks, but Brandon Lyon came dangerously close to ruining the occasion.

In the end, the Diamondbacks held on for a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday and moved back into first place in the National League West.

Dunn's first home run for the Diamondbacks helped build a 7-3 advantage, but a three-run ninth off Lyon cut the lead to one before Tony Pena came on to record the final two outs.

"I was glad to get it out of the way (home run), like my first game in this uniform. It was pretty nervewracking," Dunn said. "I settled down a lot quicker then I did in Colorado. I was definitely nervous before the game and it is such a good feeling. That is not a feeling I get very often besides Opening Day and opening day of deer season. That is about the only time I get butterflies."

San Diego starter Josh Banks (3-6) struggled with his control, walking seven in four innings, including four in the first inning.

The first four batters reached base for the Diamondbacks in the first, three via the walk. Run-scoring singles from Conor Jackson and Chris Snyder and sacrifice flies by Mark Reynolds and Chris Burke staked Arizona starter Doug Davis to a 4-0 lead.

Davis (5-7), who allowed two runs and seven hits over six innings, won at home for the first time since June 30.

"The team going out there and scoring four runs made it a lot easier to go out there and throw strikes," he said. "It felt like when they hit the ball, they hit it hard on the ground and that is something I take pride in, getting those groundballs."

Tadahito Iguchi hit an RBI single in the second with the bases loaded to get the Padres on the board and Sean Kazmar added a sac-fly to cut the deficit to 4-2.

Dunn's two-run blast in the fourth gave the Diamondbacks a four-run advantage and bounced Banks.

"I haven't been able to locate it (his fastball), and it has been tough and frustrating" Banks said. "I have been pitching for a long time and the last two games just seem really out of whack and really strange."

The Padres scored another run on a Jody Gerut single in the eighth, but the Diamondbacks got what turned out to be a key insurance run in the bottom half on another RBI single from Jackson.

Lyon, Arizona's closer, recorded one out while surrendering a two-RBI single by Adrian Gonzalez and and run-scoring single by Chase Headley.

"(Brandon Lyon) was just being a little fine with the fastball," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "He hadn't pitched in six days and was going to pitch regardless today."

Pena came on with runners on the corners, but Gonzalez was thrown out at home trying to score on a groundball off the bat of Nick Hundley. Luis Rodriguez followed with a flyout to center to end the game.

The save was Pena's second.

"We put a nice finish on them," Padres manager Bud Black said. "Every hit in the ninth was big. We just couldn't get that real big one at the end. All of our guys had good at-bats in the ninth and Pena came in and picked up Lyon."

The win combined with the Dodgers' 8-3 loss to the Rockies, moved Arizona (65-50) back into first place, one game ahead of Los Angeles (64-51).