Triples Help Raise Arizona

Injuries and inexperience haven’t slowed the Arizona Diamondbacks lately.

The surging Diamondbacks extended their season-high winning streak to six games, holding off the Houston Astros, 7-6, Monday night at Phoenix with the help of Luis Gonzalez’s tiebreaking, two-run triple in the eighth inning and Quinton McCracken’s bases-loaded triple.

After the Astros rallied for four runs in the ninth to pull to within 7-6, Brady Raggio retired Richard Hidalgo on a grounder with two on for his first career save.

Ricky Bottalico (1-0), recalled from the minors earlier in the day, pitched a scoreless eighth for his first big league victory since Sept. 18, 2001, with Philadelphia.

“I felt like I was a rookie in my first major league game when I came in,” Bottalico said. “I had some nerves out there. I hadn’t pitched in a [major league] game in over a year.”

Houston dropped two percentage points behind the first-place Chicago Cubs in the National League Central.

Gonzalez followed a single by Steve Finley and a walk to Alex Cintron with his first triple this season, a shot into the right-field corner that Hidalgo did not play well as both runners scored to break a 2-2 tie.

Colorado 5, San Diego 1 -- Shawn Chacon became the NL’s first 11-game winner by defeating the Padres for the second time in five days.

Chacon (11-3) held the host Padres to four hits in seven innings to win his third consecutive start and seven of eight. He tied his season high with eight strikeouts and walked one.

Larry Walker hit a homer and Chris Stynes had a two-run single for the Rockies, who have won three in a row and five of six.

Montreal 3, Pittsburgh 0 -- Rookie Claudio Vargas gave up three hits in eight innings at Montreal and Edwards Guzman hit his first home run in nearly two years.

Vargas (4-3) made his 11th start since being recalled from triple-A Edmonton on April 24.

Guzman, recalled from Edmonton June 7, connected against Jeff Suppan (5-7) with one out in the third for his first homer since Aug. 9, 2001, with San Francisco.