GAME THREAD: NL: HOUSTON (21-28) at ARIZONA (28-23)

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    Hernandez outstanding as Diamondbacks sweep Astros

    <h3>ARIZONA 8, HOUSTON 4</h3>PHOENIX (Ticker) -- Livan Hernandez finally had some successagainst the Houston Astros.

    Hernandez tossed his 43rd career complete game and CarlosQuentin homered to highlight a three-run fifth inning for theArizona Diamondbacks, who sent the Astros to their season-higheighth straight defeat with an 8-4 victory on Sunday.

    Chris Young added an RBI single for Arizona, which completed afour-game sweep and outscoring Houston, 34-10, in the series.

    A former World Series MVP, Hernandez (5-2) is known for pitchingdeep into games. He also has shown the ability to anchor astaff, but against the Astros it has been a different story.

    "I had a tough time against those guys the last time I facedthem," Hernandez said. "They are a good hitting team and I hadto be careful where I threw the ball. I was able to puteverything together and did not make the same mistakes I madeagainst them the last time."

    The Cuban righthander has gone just 1-2 with a 7.77 ERA in hislast four starts vs. Houston entering this contest. However,his last time out, he showed some glimpses of his formerdominant self.

    Hernandez allowed just one run and nine hits in eight inningswith a season-high eight strikeouts, but did not factor into thedecision as Arizona fell, 3-1, to Colorado on Tuesday.

    He carried his good stuff over to Sunday's game, yielding fourruns - three earned - and 11 hits, while striking out twowithout walking a batter. It was the righthander's firstcomplete game since September 20, 2005, against his former team,the San Francisco Giants.

    "The complete game does not matter much to me. I have had thembefore," Hernandez said. "It is more important that we won, weare playing well and everybody is doing their job, the pitchers,hitters, everyone."

    After Conor Jackson started the fifth with a walk, Quentin, whocommitted an error in the fourth inning that gave the Astros anearly lead, delivered a mammoth shot into deep left center offAstros ace Roy Oswalt (6-4).

    Miguel Montero followed with a double and, after Hernandez movedhim to third with a groundout, Young stroked a run-scoringsingle to make it 3-1.

    "It goes through your head because in the outfield that can'thappen and, yes, you want to redeem yourself," Quentin said."You go up there and try not to do too much (and) just slowdown. I just wanted to put a good swing on it. I didn't wantto overswing and it carried."

    After Houston tallied in the top of the seventh to move within arun, Arizona blew the game open in the bottom of the frame,tacking on four runs to make it 7-2. Rookie Alberto Callaspo,Eric Byrnes and rookie Mark Reynolds each provided RBI singlesin the inning.

    Oswalt allowed six runs - five earned - in six frames, whilewalking two and striking out two.

    "I was pretty bad today. I wasn't making quality pitches when Ineeded to," Oswalt said. "Right now the pitching staff as awhole is putting a lot of pressure on themselves. Instead ofgoing out there and pitching, we are putting pressure onourselves trying to throw a shutout every time, and you can't dothat. You have to go out there and throw a quality start.Everybody is pressing big time."

    Rookie Hunter Pence and Adam Everett stroked two hits apiece forthe Astros, who have been outscored, 65-14, during their skid.

    "We are having a tough time, no question. It has been an awfulrun. A no-good, lousy week," Astros manager Phil Garner said."The good news is it's over, and we will go home where we needto get something going."

    The Diamondbacks completed their second four-game sweep of theseason. In the four games, they had 40 hits and batted22-for-48 with runners in scoring position.

    "We did it against some pretty good pitchers, too. Our batsjust seem to be better," Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin said."In Pittsburgh it seemed like the monkey was off our back a bit.We had two games in Colorado where we didn't swing the batsvery well, but from that point on we feel like we have a chanceto score every inning.

    "It is everyone, too. When the guys in the bottom of the orderare swinging all right, you feel no matter what inning it is,what part of the game it is, you have a chance to score."
     

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