ARIZONA - Diamondbacks beat Astros 5-3 thanks to Dan Haren who played brilliantly with bat. Haren (4-1) shined for 7 2/3 innings, allowing a total of seven baserunners, five of them in the fifth inning, as Arizona ran its Majors-best home record to 10-2 in front of 19,868 in Chase Field.
The Diamondbacks had aired out a budding pitchers’ duel with a three-run strike against Chris Sampson in the fourth, when Mark Reynolds doubled for two runs and scored on Chris Snyder’s single to make it 4-0.
After sailing through the first four innings — retiring all 12 men he faced — Haren sweated through the fifth. Following a leadoff walk to Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee ripped a double to left-center for Houston’s first hit. The two took turns scoring on Hunter Pence’s infield grounder and Mark Loretta’s single, but Haren slammed the door shut with the bases loaded and one out, preserving a 4-2 lead.
Haren was working on another string of 10 consecutive outs before Michael Bourn doubled with two outs in the seventh. Miguel Tejada followed with another two-bagger to nearly the same spot in left-center, trimming the lead to 5-3 and excusing Haren in favor of Chad Qualls.
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