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Reynolds, Snyder power Diamondbacks past Giants

Sep 13, 2007 - 6:27 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) - Mark Reynolds and Chris Snyder provided the Arizona Diamondbacks with a little muscle to power their way to a victory.

The duo hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning and Conor Jackson had a two-run single in a four-run sixth as the Diamondbacks beat the San Francisco Giants, 9-4, in the rubber game of a three-game series.

Brandon Webb (16-10) threw seven solid innings to help Arizona extend its lead over the San Diego Padres (78-66) to 3 1/2 games in the National League West.

"Every win now is huge so when we can take the series and that's what we're trying to do, we're going to be just fine," Webb said.

The righthanded sinkerballer won his second straight start by retiring the first nine hitters he faced and throwing 53 of 74 pitches for strikes and got 17 of his 19 outs on ground balls. The other two came on strikeouts.

"It went good and I felt as the game went on I was a little more comfortable out there," Webb said. "I was getting ahead and then throwing a quality pitch down in the zone and they grounded out almost every time."

Webb, who allowed four runs and four hits in seven innings, tied his win total from 2006 and is second to San Diego's Jake Peavy (17) in the National League in victories.

"Statistics-wise it looks just similar to last year," said Webb, who won the Cy Young Award in 2006. "It doesn't feel quite as good. I'm right there with what I was doing last year and I guess I try to set high expectations for myself after last year."

Arizona held a 3-2 into the sixth before exploding for four runs. Augie Ojeda had an infield single and Webb reached when Bengie Molina failed to get Ojeda at second. Eric Byrnes singled to load the bases and, after a pitching change, Justin Upton hit the first pitch from Scott Munter just over the third base bag for a two-run double and a 5-2 lead.

Jackson hit the very next pitch to left-center for a two-run single to stretch the lead to 7-2.

"Tonight to score some runs, which we haven't been doing a whole lot of especially early on and in the middle innings, is a good feeling going into an off-day and winning the series," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said.

Reynolds and Snyder hit second-inning home runs off starter Jonathan Sanchez to give Arizona an early 2-0 lead.

"He left a changeup up in the zone and I was able to get a good swing on it and able to get it up out of there and Snydes came up right behind me and got us rolling right there," Reynolds said.

Arizona added to the lead in the fourth when Snyder was hit by a pitch and singles by Stephen Drew and Ojeda loaded the bases. After a forceout at home, Byrnes delivered a sacrifice fly to make the score 3-0.

The Giants answered back with two runs in the fourth. Dave Roberts led off the inning with a base hit to center. Chris Young had Roberts shaded to left-center and misplayed the ball, which rolled to the wall as Roberts wound up with a triple.

Nate Schierholtz took advantage of the opportunity, driving in Roberts with a single to right. Schierholtz stole second and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Randy Winn. Ray Durham's groundout scored Schierholtz to cut the lead to 3-2.

San Francisco scored two more runs in the sixth. Winn's double down the right field line brought home Schierholtz from first base, slicing the lead to 7-3. Winn advanced to third and scored on a groundout by Molina to make it 7-4.

"We finally got to (Webb)," Schierholtz said. "It took a couple of at-bats each but we finally started to get a couple of knocks here and there and a couple of things went our way and we got back in the game. But we couldn't quite hold it, couldn't get the hits at the end."

Drew then put the game away with a two-run double to in the ninth to cap the scoring.

Sanchez (1-4), a converted reliever, pitched only three innings, allowed five hits and three runs but struck out seven in a losing effort. Sanchez's last win in a starting role was September 6, 2006 vs. Cincinnati.

"I was leaving pitches up and getting 3-2 on guys so that's why my pitch count was up," Sanchez said. "The strikeouts don't mean anything, they struck out themselves, I didn't do that."

"We're going to keep pushing here and try to finish strong," manager Bruce Bochy said. "That's all we can do at this point."