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Davis strong as Diamondbacks increase NL West lead

Aug 10, 2007 - 5:52 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Jeff Cirillo scored the winning run and Doug Davis tossed seven strong innings as the Arizona Diamondbacks slipped past the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2, on Thursday.

Tony Clark homered and drove in a pair and Orlando Hudson plated the go-ahead run in the seventh for the Diamondbacks, who have won seven of their last nine games to push their record to 65-51, three games better than second-place San Diego (61-53) in the National League West Division.

Cirillo, who was claimed off waivers from the Minnesota Twins earlier in the week, made an immediate impact with his new team. Pinch-hitting for Davis, the veteran infielder doubled off Pirates reliever Shawn Chacon (4-3) in the seventh.

"I have come to grips at this point of my career that I am more of a piece and I will do whatever (Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin) wants me to do," Cirillo said. "You're slapping high-five with guys and you are pulling for guys, yet you don't have anything you have done to contribute. It is nice and I am excited."

Cirillo moved to third when Chris Young grounded out to the right side and trotted home one batter later on Hudson's single up the middle, snapping a 2-2 deadlock and putting Arizona in position to move 14 games over .500 for the first time since winning the NL West in 2002.

"Chris Young's at-bat was huge," Hudson said. "Jeff Cirillo has been around and doing it for so long in clutch situations. I just happened to come up and got a pretty good pitch to hit. The one-run games that we lost are now coming in our favor. That is what happens in baseball."

Hudson's RBI made a winner of Davis (9-10), who has not lost since July 5. The veteran lefthander yielded two runs and five hits while striking out three and issuing three walks.

Chacon, who has given up runs in his last six appearances, allowed one run and two hits while recording just two outs.

"I just have to fight through it," Chacon said. "It is not like it has been terrible. It always seems like it is one or two pitches each time out."

Brandon Lyon turned in a scoreless eighth and Jose Valverde pitched a flawless ninth for his major league-leading 35th save.

Davis has been in a groove recently, posting a 4-0 mark with a 2.67 ERA in his last six starts.

"He really just made one bad pitch to (Jason) Bay. After that, he settled down beautifully," Melvin said. "His ball-strike ratio wasn't good early, but he got better as the game went on, and it was nice to reward him with a win because he pitched well enough to earn it."

Davis had trouble finding his rhythm in the first inning, and the Pirates took advantage. With two outs, Freddy Sanchez doubled to left-center and Bay followed with his 18th homer of the season, a 370-foot shot over the left field wall that gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead.

"We put the two runs up in the first inning but couldn't do anything else the rest of the night," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "The rest of the night, they put up eight zeros against us. The key of the game was in the sixth, when we had people in place to do something very good and couldn't. That has haunted us all year."

But that was all the offense Pittsburgh could muster off Davis.

"I was one pitch away from greatness," Davis said. "I threw a fastball that was middle in and in (Bay's) happy place. I started throwing strikes, our defense was awesome and my off-speed pitches were getting ground balls. The defense made double plays, and that helped me get out of jams."

Arizona tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth inning with four singles against Pirates starter Ian Snell, who did not give up a hit over the first three frames. Clark and Chris Snyder knocked in the runs during the fourth-inning rally.

Snell worked six innings, surrendering two runs and six hits while striking out seven.