Record: 23-12. Pace: 106-56. Change on last season: +4.

Outside of a somewhat wobbly top of the first inning, where our defense again gifted the opposition a run, this was just what the doctor ordered. Brandon Webb gave the bullpen a much-needed day off, with his first complete game of the season, and the offense came through, providing plentiful run support - they've scored eighteen runs for their ace over his last two starts.

Webb was particularly dominant through the first eight innings, allowing only an unearned run. That came as the result of a passed ball by Chris Snyder, through Burke should also have made the play at first, and there could have been a twin-killing during the inning. However, Webb settled down and retired 16 of 17 Phillies, the only one to reach being Bruntlett, hit by a pitch. He had a three-hitter going, entering the ninth: while he did see to flag somewhat there, allowing two runs on three hits, he finished off by getting another double-play with his 104th pitch, to complete his 13th career complete-game.

His final line was six hits, no walks and four strikeouts over the nine innings, with three runs allowed, two earned: up until the final stretch, this was probably his best outing of the year so far. Even so, it still runs Webb's record to 8-0, a stunning achievement given that no-one else in the National League has more than five wins so far. That's also Brandon's tenth victory in a row, the longest run in the National League since John Smoltz won eleven consecutive games for Atlanta near the start of 1996. The only other NL pitcher to reach double-digits over the past 30 years, is Andy Hawkins, who matched Webb, with ten straight in 1985.

After the Phillies took the lead, Arizona jumped right back out there, on Young's two-run homer in the bottom of the first. his eighth of the year, giving him the team lead. But it was in the fourth where the D-backs really blew things open, scoring four times on three hits, two walks, an error and a sacrifice fly. Chris Snyder had the key knock, a two-run double, which meant he went 10-for-24 on the homestand, with six RBI. Over the twenty games he's played after his batting average sunk to .083 on April 11, Snyder has hit .357. It's time for him to be moved out of the eighth spot, and get more use out of his offense.

On the other hand, let us now speak of Eric Byrnes,, who went 0-for-5 this afternoon, and was saved by a Jenkins error from hitting into a double-play. That reduces his season average to .232 - startling, given that he was batting .293 on April 26, less than two weeks ago. Since then, he is 5-for-46, with no walks or extra-base hits, one RBI and ten strikeouts. He batted leadoff for the D-backs today, and was the only position player a) not to get a hit, and b) not to drive in or score a run. There are really only two possibilities left: he's injured, or he sucks. In neither case, should he be in the top third of the batting order any longer - yet as I mentioned in the Gameday Thread, the worse he gets, the higher up the order he moves. His OBP is now below .300, the worst of the regular eight starters. Much as I love Byrnes...he's killing us.

There were a couple of interesting changes in the lineup today, one of them enforced by the absence of Jackson and Hudson, but the other was more optional. Chris Young started out of the lead-off spot for the first time this season, and was in the three-hole instead, somewhere he was last seen late in 2006. And behind him, making his debut batting fourth, was Justin Upton: how many teams have a 20-year old in the clean-up slot? Seemed to work pretty well for both of them: they combined to go 3-for-7 with three runs scored and three driven in, and each had a homer.

Upton's line for the season is now .344/.407/.566: I know it's early, but if he sustains an OPS of .973 by the end of the year, it'll be the fourth-best ever by a player his age. He'll be trailing Ted Williams (1.045 in 1939), Alex Rodriguez (1.045 in 1996) and Mel Ott (1.084 in 1929). Even if he loses a hundred points of OPS the rest of the way, that'd still be second only to A-Rod since 1959, when Vada Pinson put up a .316/.371/.509 year for the Cincinnati Red. Today, however, Mark Reynolds was the star, getting his first three-hit game of the season; we'll even forgive Webb going 0-for-4 with five men left on base. Happy to take the complete game any time.

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Master of his domain: Brandon Webb, +17.8%
Honorary mention: Chris Young, +15.3%
God-Emperor of suck: Chris Burke, -7.2%

The afternoon game inevitably affected Gameday Thread attendance a bit, and perhaps there was a hangover from yesterday's fiasco too. I managed to sneak in for a bit at lunchtime, and also present were paqs, Bcawz, unnamedDBacksfan, soco, El Stuart, IndyDBack, kishi, dahlian, Craig from Az, Lisalisa8 [welcome!], 4 Corners Fan, hotclaws, SongBird, peeklay, Azreous, Smoltz's Beard, dstorm, DbacksSkins and singaporedbacksfan. And, hey, no irritating Dodgers fans to be found...and I so wanted to use the ban button for the first non-spamming time on SB Nation 2.0! We'll see what happens tomorrow, but bear in mind that it's another day-game: indeed, more of a morning game here in Arizona, so I will have to remember how to get something up before starting work!

Looks like there'll be no DL for Hudson, with Melvin saying before today's game, "At this point, I look to start [Hudson] Saturday, but he's in a pinch-hit role today and tomorrow." I hope that is indeed true, though I have heard an over-optimistic prognosis out of Melvin before in this case. Conor Jackson also looks to be ready to return, and could have been used as a pinch-hitter today had he been needed. "I'm surprised my arm is OK, to tell you the truth," he said. "I think that kind of took the brunt of it, but the helmet got me pretty good right below the temple, kind of in the orbit of the eye. I never lost consciousness, but I was definitely seeing stars." Remember, folks: please don't try those kind of moves at home, because Conor Jackson is a trained professional... :-)

Here's a reminder of something from last December by Nick Piecoro, which will probably have you gnawing off the odd limb in frustration. "Can you believe what Cliff Lee has been doing? The guy goes into New York last night and improves to 6-0 with seven shutout innings. And to think the Diamondbacks nearly had him. Twice. They were close on a deal last year at the All-Star break and then again prior to the winter meetings. Both deals were built around Carlos Quentin." Yes, the same Quentin whom we eventually handed over to the White Sox for an A-ball first-baseman... Sleep well, folks: see you in Chicago tomorrow!

Record: 21-9. Pace: 113-49. Change on last season: +5.

The final score makes this one look a lot more convincing than it was. Yes, Webb got his seventh win of the year. Sure, we out hit the Mets 15-6 and had a total of 23 baserunners. But, with three outs to get, this was only a one-run game and it looked like we would be relying on Brandon Lyon for a tense final inning. Then, the Mets' Duaner Sanchez imploded, retiring only one of the six hitters he faced and also uncorking a run-scoring wild pitch. By the time the innings finally ended, with Micah Owings striking out as a pinch-hitter, victory was no longer in any significant doubt, with Win Probability having gone from 86.5% to 99.7%.

All hail Augie Ojeda, replacing the injured Hudson, who joined an elite group: Diamondbacks with 6+ RBI during a game. There are now only ten names on that list - Steve Finley did it twice in 1999 - many not the ones you'd expect. Only two [Finley and Gonzo] appear in the franchise top ten RBI list: present instead are Micah Owings, Orlando Hudson, Damion Easley [starting, by coincidence, for the Mets today], Shea Hillenbrand, Carlos Baerga, Chad Moeller and Erubiel Durazo. Ojeda singled in two runs during the second, doubled down the right-field line to add two more in the fifth, and repeated the medicine as part of the five-run ninth. Given he'd never driven in more than three before - and that all the way back in 2001 - this was truly a day he'll remember.

He's not the only Diamondbacks to have a career game, though the other one has much less of a career - thus far, at least. With three hits and two walks, and at age 20 years and 252 days, Justin Upton became the youngest player to reach base safely five times in a game since Ken Griffey (20 years, 173 days) on May 13th, 1990. The one before that was Alan Tramell (20, 136) on July 7th 1978. Young, Drew, Jackson and Snyder all joined Upton and Ojeda with multiple hits: CY and CoJack also added walks, as we reached double-figures in runs for the first time in exactly two weeks.

This was a major relief since, despite being voted NL Pitcher of the Month for April (well, duh...), Brandon Webb did not have his best stuff, missing his spots and falling behind hitters much more often than he has cruising to a 6-0 record and an ERA below two. That said, he only really made one mistake he couldn't correct: that was a 1-1 pitch to Carlos Delgado with two outs in the sixth, which was promptly dispatched into the right-field corner for a three-run homer. All of a sudden, what had been looking a fairly comfortable 5-1 lead, suddenly became a great deal more nerve-wracking. Webb ended the day after that inning, having allowed four runs on only five hits and two walks.

The A-Bullpen were, however in full effect. Qualls extended his streak of innings without an earned run to 16.2 innings, and is now within sight of the franchise record for a reliever. That stands at 21 innings - from another surprising source, journeyman bullpen arm Willie Banks, over 16 games between June 25 and August 23 1998, after coming over from the Yankees. Tony Peña was perhaps the most impressive of the trio, as he mowed down the heart of the Mets 1-2-3, first taking Church to school [if you see what I mean...], then retiring Wright and Beltran. Lyon allowed a single to Easley, but that was it, and we evened up the series, in advance of what should be a great game tomorrow.

It wasn't all sunshine and lollipops today. Our defense was once agaib flaky, with errors being charged to Drew and Webb - the former letting a ground-ball under his glove, the latter apparently trying to throw a high chopper by Easley, before he'd actually caught it. Byrnes and Reynolds struggled again: before they came to bat in that eighth inning [Eric singled and Mark walked], they were a combined 0-for-8 with nine men left on base. Special K's average is now down to .226, and he was overtaken by both Young [.244] and Snyder [.227] today.

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Master of his domain: Augie Ojeda, +21.1%
Honorary mention: Justin Upton, +14.0%
God-emperor of suck: Mark Reynolds, -10.8%

After last night, it was definitely good to come out on the winning end of this one, and the emphatic margin will hopefully give us some momentum going into tomorrow [I'm not sure if there is such a thing or if it's one of those unproven myths like two-out runs being worse to give up]. I kinda thought we'd have more people in the thread today - for the second consecutive game, we didn't need an overflow thread. Still, thanks to those present: Turambar, Jim McLennan, 4 Corners Fan, foulpole, luckycc, Muu, hotclaws, dahlian, Snakebitten, DiamondbacksWIn, soco, mrssoco, kishi, Azreous, TwinnerA, snakecharmer and njjohn.

The victory was particularly crucial as the Giants and Padres have both won: the Dodgers and Rockies are in another slugfest at Coors [17 runs last night, 15 already this evening and we're only in the sixth], but LA look to have the edge there. And with that, we're thinking about heading off to see Iron Man tonight. We'll let you know if Mark Reynolds has a cameo role... :-)

Record: 9-2. Pace: 133-29. Change on last season: +2

It won't last forever, of course. How could it? It's not even the longest winning run in Diamondbacks history: we had two eight-game streaks just last year and one in 2002; have reached nine games three times, and the 2003 roster won 12 in a row. But is this perhaps the best the team have ever played? It certainly could be. We've scored 61 runs in eight games; among all the streaks of that length or more, the only one with a higher run-rate was May 4-13, 2000 where we scored 69 in nine victories. However, there we conceded 32, compared to only 21 in this sequence, so our run differential is already three runs better at +40, in one fewer game. Anyway, for what it's worth, here is the info on the other longest streaks.

12 games
June 18-30, 2003: @HOU, CIN, HOU, @DET, @COL. Total 73-42. This wasn't easy. Half the wins were by one run, and another trio by two. It finally ended as the calendar turned to July, going down 7-4 in Coors.

9 games
May 4-13, 2000: @MIL, SDP, LAD, @SDP. Total: 69-32. This had a couple of slugfests vs. LA, 15-7 and 11-7. Daal was the unlucky loser as we went for ten; AZ lost 3-1 to the Padres, two unearned runs scoring on an error by Lenny Harris.

May 25-June 3, 2001: @SDP, @SFG, SDP. Total: 37-17. As the total shows, this one was driven by pitching, with a team ERA of just 1.45. It included the legendary 18-inning, 1-0 win in SF, where Miguel Batista got the W with four innings of relief.

August 10-19, 2001: @ATL, PIT, CHC. Total: 56-18. The pitching would have been better still, save the final game being a 13-6 win. This streak overlapped with a run of ten straight where we allowed 3 runs or less. Johnson + Schilling at their finest.

8 games
August 9-17, 2002: FLA, @CIN, @CHC. Total: 48-13. More dominant hurling, with the opposition restricted to two or less each game, a batting average of .191 and an overall ERA of 1.38. We lost the ninth game by one run, then won another four.

May 24-June 1, 2007: HOU, @PHI, @NYM. Total: 60-25. The team hit .327 during these eight games, and most were won by four or more runs. It included our biggest win of the season; a 13-3 pounding of Houston, with Mark Reynolds going 5-for-5.

July 21-28, 2007: @CHC, FLA, ATL. Total: 45-22. Four were by a single run, but the wheels fell off on July 29, Atlanta drubbing us 14-0. We only batted .279, but held the opposition to .201; the streak took us from 4.5 back to tied for the NL West lead.

While we're on the subject of streaks, another couple were extended by today's victory. Since August 4, 2006, when we lost 8-7 to Houston, the Diamondbacks are 51-0 when scoring seven runs or more. That's impressive; usually, a team has a couple of games a year where they "waste offense", when both teams score a lot of runs (like the 2000 Dodgers games mentioned above), but it hasn't happened to Arizona in a long time. And Hudson's K-less streak has now hit 57 plate appearances. To put that into perspective, the last man to have a season with more than 50 PA's and no K's, was Willie Jones in 1947, who had 69. Though, like I said, it won't last forever!

Today's game was...well, I begin to run out of superlatives. Another well-pitched, well-hit, well-defended victory. I feel some sympathy for the Rockies, who have found themselves facing an unstoppable force, and must now have some idea what it was like for us last year in the NLCS. Except, of course, without the lucky bounces and dubious umpiring decision they received then. ;-) The Diamondbacks adapted well to their second view of Morales, who shut them out for six innings last time. Today, the shutout lasted for exactly four batters, before Conor Jackson grounded out to bring Eric Byrnes home from third.

They added two more on doubles by Snyder and Young in the second, and when Colorado pulled one back in the third, promptly restored the lead with a Drew sacrifice fly. The game was then ended as a meaningful contest in the fifth, when Justin Upton swatted his fifth homer of the season, a three-run shot which went an estimated 429 feet. Said Upton afterwards, "I'm just playing ball. I'm just feeling comfortable at the plate and that's always a plus. Right now, I'm just seeing the ball and hitting it."

That would be a line of .415/.447/.805. I guess this counts as seeing the ball! Yet another three-hit game today, his fourth such of this young season, and one wonders how many he'll end up with by October. Eric Byrnes led the Diamondbacks last year, posting 13 such [well, twelve plus a four-hit game!], and one senses Upton will be challenging that. Probably by the All-Star break! Byrnes himself had two hits and a walk, while CoJack reached safely three times too, on a hit and a pair of walks. Reynolds and Snyder each had a hit and a walk; the latter finding his first extra-base hit of the year.

On the mound, Dan Haren took the win, with six innings of generally-effective baseball. He had his moments, putting the first two Rockies hitters aboard in both the second and fourth inning, but escaped without damage either time, going to his splitter to get back-to-back K's of Atkins and Ianetta in the second and in the fourth, after a double-play wasn't quite turned, the Rockies' next hitter obligingly repeated the medicine. His overall line was five hits, two walks and one run in six innings, with seven K's; he improved his record to 2-0, and he would be 3-0 - plus the Diamondbacks at 10-1! - except for the three-run homer to Encarnacion.

Behind him, Medders pitched a scoreless seventh, and Jailen Peguero, coming up for a few days between Doug Davis going onto the DL, and Randy Johnson being taken off it, a perfect eighth. The Petit Unit had a wobbly ninth, allowing two runs on three hits, but since he had a nine-run lead at that point, I don't think he exactly had even the most nervous of fans reaching for the Tums. That did mean the Rockies had exactly the same number of hits as Arizona - nine - but two-thirds of ours went for extra-bases, compared to only a solitary double for Colorado. Very nice to see Troyboy go ohfer with 3 K's: makes him 2-for-22 with no walks and six strikeouts this season against us.

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Master of his domain: Dan Haren, +18.4%
Honorary mention: Chris Snyder, +13.9%
God-emperor of suck: Mark Reynolds, -2.7%

Slightly quieter in the Gameday Thread today; imagine a lot of people have other things to do on a Saturday afternoon, though it's all relative. When I say "slightly quieter," I mean we fell short of four hundred - which last year would have had champagne corks popping! :-) Present were: foulpole, kishi, unnamedDBacksfan, jsk6788, hotclaws, azshadowwalker, seton hall snake pit, Stile4aly, Azreous, Muu, TwinnerA, njjohn and Wimb. An excellent victory, rolling us to 8-0 versus the division this season, and at time of writing it looks like the Padres are going down [they are 5-1 behind], so looking good for a 3.5 game lead. Yes, I think all Diamondbacks fans will sleep rather well tonight...

An amusing postscript. Fox - who chose Yankees-Red Sox as the Game of the Week over D'backs-Rockies in 48 states - ended up blowing it big time. Thanks to a lengthy rain delay, the game ran long, and with two out in the top of the 9th, Fox abruptly dropped coverage to broadcast the start of a NASCAR race...which was taking place [Oh, the irony] back here in Phoenix! Anyone wanting to see the end of the game had to scramble for the remote and switch over to FX. And justice was duly served...