Phoenix, AZ (Sports Network) – Augie Ojeda’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth delivered the winning run as Arizona downed Houston, 4-3, to start a three-game set.
Adam LaRoche went 2-for-4 with two runs batted in and Gerardo Parra added two hits and a run scored for the Diamondbacks, who have won four in a row and seven of their last eight games while outscoring their opponents 58-28 in the process.
Aaron Heilman (5-5) earned the win with a scoreless top of the eighth and Juan Gutierrez worked a scoreless ninth to preserve the win and earn his seventh save.
Wilton Lopez (5-1) suffered the loss after yielding the deciding run on one hit over one inning of work for the Astros, who had a three-game win streak snuffed out.
Ryan Roberts doubled off Lopez to open the decisive frame and advanced to third base on a Gerardo Parra groundout. Ojeda, pinch-hitting for Heilman, then lifted a fly ball deep enough to center field to chase home Roberts with the tie-breaking run which also ended Lopez’s time on the hill.
“We played a tight game tonight with a team that’s been pretty hot,” said DBacks manager Kirk Gibson. “We’re at home, so we’ll take last at-bats. We navigated well and executed very nicely tonight.”
Houston had evened the game at three when Angel Sanchez grounded into a double play with runners at the corners and nobody out in the seventh.
Stephen Drew singled to start the home first, advanced after a walk to Chris Young and scored when LaRoche followed with a double. However, Houston starter Brett Myers worked his way out of further trouble by getting Mark Reynolds to foul out, Miguel Montero to fly out to shallow right field and Brandon Allen to pop up.
Sanchez opened the fourth with a base hit and scored to tie the game on Jeff Keppinger’s one-out single to left. Myers doubled to right with one out in the fifth and scored on a Sanchez two-out single to right to put the Astros in the lead for the first time.
Arizona reclaimed the lead in the fifth on consecutive run-scoring singles by Young and LaRoche.
Daniel Hudson delivered another fine start for Arizona but was not involved in the decision after allowing two runs on seven hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
Myers was charged with three runs on seven hits with three walks and four strikeouts in his six of innings, as he stretched his streak of lasting at least six frames in each of his 28 turns this season.
“I thought he did a good job of at least of giving us a chance to win,” said Houston skipper Brad Mills of Myers outing. “He might not have been as sharp at the start of the game but around the third and fourth innings, he started throwing the ball well, kind of vintage Myers.”
LaRoche’s two RBI give him 89 on the season, the most for a D-Backs first baseman in a single season, surpassing Tony Clark’s 87 in 2005…Drew went 1- for-3 and has hit safely in nine of his last 10 games during which he has 18 hits…Hudson has gone at least six innings in each of his seven starts since being acquired by the D-Backs on July 30…Arizona selected the contract of veteran left-hand pitcher Mike Hampton from Triple-A Reno prior to the game…Houston has lost eight of its last nine meetings with Arizona…Astros outfielder Hunter Pence went 2-for-4 and has a team-leading 43 multi-hit games…Michael Bourn went 2-for-5 for Houston to extend his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games, which is also the longest current streak in the NL.