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Clark homers twice as Diamondbacks top Rockies

Apr 16, 2007 - 2:43 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Tony Clark made Byung-Hyun Kim's return to the rotation a short one.

Clark belted his first two home runs of the season and the Arizona Diamondbacks' bullpen picked up for a shaky outing by Doug Davis en route to a 6-4 triumph over the Colorado Rockies in the rubber game of a three-game series.

Orlando Hudson added two hits for the Diamondbacks, who have won eight of their last 10 games.

Kim (1-2) lost out on the No. 5 spot in the rotation during spring training but got a shot when scheduled starter Rodrigo Lopez was scratched with right elbow inflammation.

Clark hit a two-run homer to center field in the first for a 4-2 lead and snapped a 4-4 tie with a leadoff blast in the fourth that ended Kim's outing. Clark improved to 5-for-8 lifetime against the South Korean sidearming righthander.

"It is good to make a contribution," Clark said. "The first one I got a fastball that ran over a bit and I was fortunate that the cross wind didn't breath on it too much. It was nice to put together a solid inning after they scored two. It would have been real easy to throw in the towel but we were able to get some runs back right away."

It was Clark's 22nd multi-home run game of his career.

"Sometimes the ball finds the bat and you enjoy it for whatever it is," Clark said. "For whatever reason I have had some success against him and have gotten myself in some hitting counts where I have been able to hit the ball hard."

"Tony has been a humongous contributor in the clubhouse," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "You talk about leaders, Tony is definitely a leader here."

Davis needed every bit of help from Clark and his teammates. The lefthander (1-1) was tagged for four runs and nine hits - including a third-inning homer by Todd Helton - in five frames.

"Sometimes you are going to have days like this when you don't throw your best and you find yourself fighting yourself," Davis said. "I was falling behind again. I tried to adjust my mechanics later on but I have to do that after eight pitches not 80."

But four relievers were spotless and Jose Valverde closed it out in the ninth for his sixth save after walking consecutive batters.

"The bullpen was huge," manager Bob Melvin said. "Today Doug Davis was a little off with his command. We don't want to tax Brandon Lyon too much, (Tony) Pena came in and did his job and (Dustin) Nippert came up big for us.

Dustin Nippert worked the sixth in his season debut, Tony Pena logged the seventh and Brandon Lyon the eighth.

"In the seventh with the lead and the shadows we felt that it was good time to get Nippert involved. "We felt it was a real good matchup for us. Valverde - if it ends up getting us a save, I am OK with it but every now and then it would be nice to see a 1-2-3 inning."

Kim was charged with five runs and four hits in three-plus frames leaving the game a jammed right thumb.

"When I threw the ball I didn't know where it would go," Kim said. "I hurt my thumb batting in the second inning. I wanted to stay in because I didn't want to use up the bullpen, so I had to throw more innings. After I gave up that home run I threw a pitch and knew that I could not throw anymore."

After Colorado reached Davis for an RBI double by Garett Atkins and a run-scoring single by Helton in the first, Arizona loaded the bases on a walk and two singles. Chad Tracy and Byrnes followed with sacrifice flys before Clark homered on a 2-1 offering.

The Rockies drew even on a second-inning sacrifice fly by Willy Tavares and Helton's homer in the third.

"We only got one hit off their bullpen," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "We had our pitcher up three times with runners on base so it is kind of a skewed number with runners on. (Matt) Holliday got the last hit off of Davis in the fifth and with the exception of some walks late we only scratched one hit off their bullpen."