• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Rodriguez wins for first time in 10 months in Astros' win

May 13, 2007 - 11:02 PM HOUSTON (Ticker) -- Wandy Rodriguez could finally smile, but the horror continued for Doug Davis.

Rodriguez won his first start in more than 10 months while Davis lost his ninth straight at Minute Maid Park as the Houston Astros beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 5-2, in Sunday's rubber game of a three-game set.

Rodriguez's last win came against the Texas Rangers on July 2, 2006, a span of 18 starts and eight losses, but Rodriguez (1-3) threw seven shutout frames against Arizona on April 15, 2006 and continued his success in his second career start against Arizona. The 28-year-old yielded just a run and four hits with two walks and three strikeouts.

"It feels good to finally get that first win," Rodriguez said. "I felt my fastball and my changeup were pretty good, today. I was able to mix them up well."

The lone blemish against Rodriguez was Scott Hairston's second homer of the season in the second inning. He loaded the bases in the third on a single to Chris Young and walks to Conor Jackson and Orlando Hudson before retiring Jason Lane on a flyout to end the inning.

"Wandy did a pretty good job," Houston manager Phil Garner said. "His pitch count got pretty high in a hurry. That's why we had to take him out."

Rick White, Brad Lidge and Chad Qualls each pitched a scoreless inning before closer Dan Wheeler yielded a ninth-inning homer to Hudson before completing the six-hitter.

Meanwhile, Davis' nightmares here continued. The lefthander yielded four runs - three earned - and six hits in 4 1/3 innings with four walks to drop to 0-9 with a 5.56 ERA in 10 career starts.

"I was tired after throwing 25 pitches in the first inning," Davis said. "I was falling behind these guys too much. It was one of those starts you just want to throw out and forget.

"All I had today was my cutter and my curveball. I don't know what it was mechanically, maybe I was just trying too hard."

Davis entered this contest 0-3 in three road starts despite allowing two earned runs in 18 frames.

Arizona's lack of offense is wearing thin on manager Bob Melvin.

"When you're not scoring runs, it puts a little more pressure on your pitcher," Melvin said. "Doug was probably not his best today, but I went out a little earlier than usual because we're not scoring runs.

Arizona has not scored five runs in any of his last 12 games.

"At some point in time, we're going to have to pick it up, offensively. There were some signs that I thought we were going to do it today, but we didn't."

The Astros took a 3-1 lead off Davis with two runs in the fourth. Rookie Hunter Pence led off with a single and scored on a one-out double to left by Brad Ausmus. After a groundout by Rodriguez and a walk to Craig Biggio, Mark Loretta singled to right, plating Ausmus.

They added another run in the fifth, when Carlos Lee singled, Pence walked and Adam Everett doubled home Lee for a 4-1 edge. Craig Biggio doubled and scored on a line single to left by Lance Berkman.

Garner was happy to see a near total team contribution.

"Carlos hasn't had big RBI days, but he's been steady," Garner said, "He's steadily picked up the big runs. His RBIs have been pretty evenly spread out. Lance has pitched in lately, too. Everybody's been contributing."

Lee downplayed his hefty RBI total.

"We're picking up those runs now when we weren't earlier," Lee said. "I have no complaints about the pitching staff. They've done their job. "We're showing now what we're capable of doing. I can't knock in runs if guys don't get on base. We're starting to make things happen."

Biggio finished with two doubles and two runs while reaching base four times. The second baseman gained sole possession of 28th on the all-time hits list with 2,966, passing Sam Crawford. He has 649 doubles, eight behind Nap Lajoie for sixth lifetime.

He's closing in on Ted Williams on the all-time runs scored list, but didn't put too much stock in that accomplishment.

"He went away to war for five years," Biggio said bluntly. "I can't give you guys any more cliches. It's an honor to be nearing all these milestones.