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Hawpe homers twice as Rockies top Diamondbacks

May 17, 2007 - 4:30 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- The Colorado Rockies do not seem very intimidated by reigning Cy Young Award winner Brandon Webb.

Brad Hawpe hit two home runs and drove in four runs as the Rockies posted a 5-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday.

Willy Taveras added two hits and a run for Colorado, which beat Webb for the second time this year. In three starts against the Rockies this season, Webb has allowed 15 runs and 22 hits in 18 innings.

"It's not really the home runs," Hawpe said. "It's the driving guys in with two outs. To do that to help the club is good. I've had a lot of good swings lately where I haven't been putting a good swing on it,"

Colorado starter Aaron Cook (3-1) picked up his third win in as many starts, allowing two runs and five hits while striking out one without a walk in six innings. He was perfect through four frames before allowing a leadoff single by Eric Byrnes in the fifth.

"I feel like it'd starting to come together," Cook said. "The main thing is I have confidence when I go out there right now and you can't really teach confidence. It's one of those things you either have or you don't."

Ramon Ramirez and Manny Corpas each pitched an inning of scoreless relief to bridge the way to Brian Fuentes, who worked around a walk in the ninth for his 10th save of the season.

"It was a good ballgame for us," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "We got what we needed form Cook. The bullpen was very effective, two big swings from Brad. It was a step in the right direction."

Hawpe's second home run of the game in the sixth broke a 2-2 tie and gave Colorado the lead for good. John Mabry walked with two outs to join Matt Holliday, who doubled earlier in the inning, on the basepaths. Hawpe followed with the decisive swing, driving Webb's 3-2 pitch over the wall in left for his third blast of the year.

"It was a decent pitch," Webb said. "Take him out of the lineup and I'd be all right. He was killing me. The pitch was off the plate a little as well."

Webb (3-3) allowed five runs - four earned - and six hits in six innings. The righthander struck out three and walked two.

Colorado took the early lead in the first inning.

Taveras led off with a single and stole second. After Troy Tulowitzki walked, Holliday flew out. But Taveras scored moments later when Webb made a throwing error after fielding a grounder by Todd Helton.

Mabry's grounder to first baseman Tony Clark appeared to plate the Rockies' second run of the inning. However, Clark threw home to catcher Chris Iannetta, who tagged out Tulowitzki on a bang-bang play. Webb struck out Hawpe to end the inning.

Hawpe fared better against Webb in the fourth, swatting the first pitch he saw over the wall in right field.

It was the first multiple-homer game for the Colorado right fielder, who had just one through 37 games this season.

Trailing, 2-0, the Diamondbacks rebounded to knot the game in their next at-bat.

Byrnes' leadoff single not only ended Cook's bid for a perfect game but extended his hitting streak to 10 games. Clark reached first on a grounder that forced out Byrnes at second, and Scott Hairston followed with a double to left.

Both runners scored on a two-base hit by Mark Reynolds, who recorded his first career hit and RBI in his major league debut.

"We're having trouble adding on runs and scoring multiple runs in an inning lately," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said. "Reynolds had a great night for us. We need to find another way to get some more runs. For a while, we haven't been able to do that."

Hairston scored two runs for the Diamondbacks, who have not won back-to-back games on the road since sweeping a four-game series against the Washington Nationals from April 5-8.