Diamondbacks cruise past Giants

Sep 13, 2007, 5:36 GMT

San Francisco, CA - Mark Reynolds and Chris Snyder belted back-to-back home runs in the second inning, as the Arizona Diamondbacks downed the San Francisco Giants, 9-4, in the conclusion of a three-game series at AT&T Park.

Stephen Drew and Conor Jackson both had two hits and drove in two runs for the Diamondbacks, who had their six-game winning streak snapped with Tuesday's 2-1 loss in the second game of this series. They improved their lead in the NL West to 3 1/2 games over the Padres, who fell to LA 6-1.

'That's our goal all year is to take two out of three,' Reynolds said. 'If we take the first two then we get greedy, but it seems like we lose a lot of first games of the series and then we start grinding away and we try to take two out of three every time.'

Brandon Webb (16-10), who has won eight of his last 10 starts, allowed four runs on seven hits with two strikeouts over seven innings for Arizona.

Dave Roberts ended 2-for-4 and scored a run for the Giants, who have lost two of three, and were eliminated from playoff contention. In his third start of the season for San Francisco, Jonathan Sanchez (1-4) allowed three runs on five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts over three-plus innings.

'We knew it (playoff-contention elimination),' San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. 'We're going to keep pushing here and try to finish strong. That's all we can do at this point.'

Holding a 3-2 edge, the D-backs blew the game open with a four-run sixth. Augie Ojeda singled, Webb bunted his way to first, and Eric Byrnes' single loaded the bases as Scott Munter replaced Scott Atchison on the mound. The move failed to pay off, however, as the reliever surrendered a two-run double to Justin Upton and a two-run single to Jackson before inducing a Chris Young forceout and a Reynolds groundout.

The Giants answered with two runs in the home half, as Nate Schierholtz reached on a forceout and scored on a double by Randy Winn, who then reached third on Ray Durham's single before coming home on a Bengie Molina groundout.

Arizona added a pair of insurance runs in the ninth off reliever Erick Threets, who walked Tony Clark and Young, both of whom reached scoring position on Reynolds' groundout. Two batters later, Drew drove both home on a ground-rule double to left-center field, where a fan interfered with the ball that should have made for a homer.

Reynolds and Snyder led off the second with consecutive homers to left field - the second time this season Arizona has blasted back-to-back long balls.

Arizona plated another run in the fourth when Snyder got hit by the inning's fourth pitch and advanced to third on Drew and Ojeda singles before getting forced out at home on Webb's groundball. The bases still loaded, Drew scored on a Byrnes sacrifice fly.

San Francisco scored two runs in the fourth. Roberts lined a lead-off triple and scored on a single by Schierholtz, who then stole second before Winn bunted him over to third. Durham's groundout to first was enough to bring Schierholtz home, cutting the Giants' deficit to one run heading into the fifth.

Game Notes

Threets made his major league debut...Sanchez is winless in his last six starts since beating Cincinnati on September 6, 2006...Arizona holds an 8-7 edge over San Francisco in the 2007 season series, but the Giants are 6-3 in games played at AT&T Park.

© 2007 The Sports Network

Game Notes

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