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Owings, Hudson carry Diamondbacks past Rockies

May 15, 2008 - 5:59 AM PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Micah Owings threw six scoreless innings and Orlando Hudson drove in two runs to help the Arizona Diamondbacks hold on for a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old Owings (5-1) gave up only five hits with five strikeouts, improving to 2-0 lifetime in the series. Owings has been outstanding in two career starts against the Rockies, holding them to just one run and seven hits in 12 2/3 frames combined.

It also marked the righthander's first victory since winning his first four outings of the season.

"It's been a while so it's nice to get a win," Owings said. "But you can't really get caught up in wins and losses personally because it's a crazy game, a lot goes into it, but I'll take any win I can get and these guys did a heck of a job."

Owings handed the game over to Arizona's bullpen with a 4-0 lead. But Chad Qualls, Doug Slaten and Tony Pena all allowed runs to make things interesting for closer Brandon Lyons.

"I was in a good hitter's count," Colorado's Scott Podsednik said of his two-run single that made it a 4-3 deficit. "Got down to 3-1, (Pena) made a pretty good pitch, I was able to fight it off and get enough bat on it to, I wouldn't say drive, to poke it into left field."

After getting the first two batters to ground out in the ninth inning, Lyons gave up consecutive singles to Todd Helton and Garrett Atkins to place runners on the corners. But the righthander rebounded to pick up his 11th save by inducing Brad Hawpe to pop out to end the game.

With runners on the corner and none out in the fourth inning, Conor Jackson hit an RBI single to right to open the scoring for Arizona off Colorado starter Jorge De La Rosa (1-2).

After De La Rosa intentionally walked Justin Upton to load the bases, Eric Byrnes grounded into a double play as Hudson scored from third to give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead.

"We as a team did a great job," Hudson said. "Micah battled and threw a great game, the bullpen came in and did a great job. We got another big win against a good again."

Arizona added a pair of runs an inning later when Hudson laced a two-run double to center field. It was Hudson's second game in a row with two RBI.

"That was enormous, a big hit," Arizona manager Bob Melvin said. "Even early on the hits early weren't squared up, we were having a tough time squaring it, throwing a lot of splits, changes, whatever it was and curveballs. Those are backbreakers when you feel you out of an inning, you get a two-out hit like that, that gets you two runs, doubles up the score at the time, that's the hit of the game obviously."

De La Rosa surrendered four runs and seven hits in just 4 2/3 innings. The lefthander fanned six batters and walked three.

"I thought De La Rosa pitched a much better game than his line," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "He had three walks - one was intentional - six punch-outs, if we handle the ball a little better in the outfield, there's no telling what the line is."

Ryan Spilborghs drove in a run for the defending National League champion Rockies, who held a 12-7 edge in hits.