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Jackson hits, Davis pitches Diamondbacks past Phillies

May 29, 2007 - 5:42 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Conor Jackson helped give Doug Davis a lead and then was almost responsible for giving it away.

Jackson hit a home run and drove in four runs and Davis pitched eight strong innings as the Arizona Diamondbacks posted a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday in the opener of a three-game series.

Arizona has won five straight but it was not as easy as Davis made it look. Philadelphia rallied with three runs in the bottom of the ninth and the game ended when pinch hitter Rod Barajas flied out to the wall in right field with runners on first and third.

"It's a big win for our team, keeping our streak going," Davis said. "The Phillies have been playing pretty well lately. Everybody on the team is doing their job."

Davis (3-6) allowed one run and seven hits while striking out five and walking none. Ryan Howard hit a home run in the seventh for the only run the Phillies managed off Davis.

"I just executed pitches from a plan that I had from watching film," Davis said. "There's a lot of pop in their lineup. I thought I pitched them well. I was able to throw strikes and miss the fat part of the bat for the most part besides the home run to Howard.

"My curve ball was definitely one of my better pitches tonight, especially against the lefties like (Chase) Utley and Howard. I threw it a lot. I had a good cutter today."

Howard was facing Davis for the first time.

"He's that guy who's just gonna hit his spots," Howard said. "He's not gonna overpower you, but he's gonna definitely try to get you to get yourself out."

Davis snapped a personal three-game losing streak and won for the first time on the road this season.

"He's pitched pretty well for us the better part of the season," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "He hasn't gotten much run support. He's kept us in basically every game that he has pitched, less maybe two or three.

"So it's good that we got him some runs early. He could relax a little bit. He did his thing in a ballpark that could be tough to pitch in and ended up getting a win."

Jackson hit a two-run homer in the first to give Arizona a 2-0 lead after Eric Byrnes led off the game with a single.

"Earlier in the year, I had been struggling with runners on base," Jackson said. "I knew it was gonna come. It's all confidence. It's one of those things where you gotta get up there and feel sexy. That's just the way it is. It's confidence. It's not arrogance. It's just getting in a groove."

Carlos Quentin drove in Arizona's third run with a sacrifice fly before Jackson added a two-run double in the ninth off reliever Ryan Madson that gave the Diamondbacks a 5-1 lead and turned out to be huge.

"Obviously, the ninth ends up being real big adding on a couple right there," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "Conor's starting to swing the bat real well again. The ball is jumping off his bat."

Greg Dobbs came on to pinch hit in the ninth for the Phillies against Jose Valverde and delivered a three-run homer to make it 5-4.

"I wasn't thinking (about) hitting a home run at all," Dobbs said. "I'm just trying to put my bat on the ball, give us a chance to have some other guys come up and be the hero."

"Jose has been unbelievable for us all year," Melvin said. "Sometimes you run into situations like that. They had some good at-bats off him, particularly Dobbs hitting the home run that makes it 5-4. It's gonna happen like that sometimes."

Pat Burrell followed with a pinch-hit single and pinch runner Michael Bourn moved to third when a ground ball by Carlos Ruiz rolled through Jackson's legs at first base.

"Every possible thing in that ninth inning happened," Jackson said. "A little Buckner flashback. I wasn't really ready for (the grounder). Just a mental error on my part. It was definitely something I've got to come up with."

Brandon Lyon then relieved Valverde, who had thrown 32 pitches, and retired Barajas to end the game and pick up his second save.

"I just didn't want Jose throwing upwards of 40 pitches and (Ruiz) was gonna be his last hitter regardless," Melvin said.

Philadelphia starter Freddy Garcia (1-4) turned in his longest outing in the season but was outdueled by Davis. Garcia allowed three runs and seven hits in eight innings with nine strikeouts. He had not gone more than six innings in any of his eight starts this season entering Monday.

"I was feeling good," Garcia said. "I made good pitches. I was in control. I'm not a five-inning pitcher. That's not me. Before today, I was really disappointed because I was only going five, six innings."

Garcia singled in his first at-bat but got a little too eager to help himself with the bases loaded in the fifth with one out. Garcia swung at the first pitch and hit a tapper back to Davis, who started a 1-2-3 double play to get out of the inning.

"I saw the pitch and I swung," Garcia said. "If you see something you like, you try to make something happen."

"I let him hit because he's a first-ball hitter and he hacks," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "He hits a lot of balls in the air."

Last season's National League MVP, Howard has three of his nine home runs since coming off the disabled list on Friday.

"Coming off the DL, I'm just getting more comfortable," Howard said. "I've been putting good swings on pitches."