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Webb carries Diamondbacks past Giants

Apr 23, 2008 - 5:46 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Brandon Webb is known for his arm, not his bat. He used both in this one.

Webb battled through six innings and drove in the go-head runs as the Arizona Diamondbacks completed a two-game series sweep of the San Francisco Giants with Tuesday's 5-4 victory.

The 2006 National League Cy Young Award winner, Webb (5-0) gave up three runs and nine hits with seven strikeouts and two walks to remain undefeated on the season.

"It was a battle all day, pretty much, seems from the 'pen I didn't feel real sharp," Webb said. "One of those days when my arm didn't feel real live, ended up battling through it, seven hits through the first couple innings and then knew it was going to be a struggle the whole time.

"So, I just tried mixing the off-speed pitches, which I did, got some big strikeouts when I needed to - just battled."

Brandon Lyon got the final three outs in the ninth for his fifth save in seven chances for the Diamondbacks, who have won six of their last seven games.

It also was Webb's 11th career win over the Giants.

The 28-year-old righthander ran into some trouble in the first two innings as Randy Winn and Fred Lewis combined to drive in three runs to forge a 3-0 lead.

"In a lot of ways, that was as impressive an outing as he has had this year, early on, it didn't look like he potentially was going to make it past the third or fourth inning," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said.

Chris Snyder's two-run single against Giants starter Barry Zito cut Arizona's deficit to 3-2.

Webb then put the Diamondbacks ahead with a two-run double to deep center field. After Chris Young walked, Eric Byrnes chased Zito (0-5) with an RBI single to cap the three-run frame.

"Hopefully, it was going to be a fastball where I could hit," Webb said. "(The pitch) ended up being a fastball that I was pretty much swinging no matter what, ended up getting a pretty good piece of wood on it and two RBI which is huge."

"We came out, we were capitalizing on Webb's mistakes, got a lead, got up 3-0, and I feel like (trash)," Zito said. "I just let them back in the game, giving up two runs in a shut down inning and went out in the fourth and gave up that hit to Webb and that got them back in the game."

The Giants got within one run in the eighth when Lewis laced a run-scoring double down the left-field line against Arizona reliever Tony Pena.

Zito surrendered five runs and six hits in just 3 2/3 innings as his ERA jumped to 5.61. It was the fourth time this season the lefthander has gave up at least five runs.

"We squandered too many opportunities early," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "You get a good pitcher like (Webb) on the ropes, and we stranded to many runners early."