Currently: Brandon Webb has been a consistent pitcher for most of his career. The Arizona Diamondbacks ace also knows how to be consistently dominant from time to time.
Less than a year after the former Cy Young Award winner ran off 42 1-3 consecutive scoreless innings, Webb is on another remarkable run, having won his first nine starts of 2008.
He’ll try to make it 10 on Wednesday as he hopes to prevent a second straight Arizona loss at Florida, while ending the Diamondbacks’ four-game road losing streak.
No pitcher has won this many starts to open a season since San Diego’s Andy Hawkins won his first 10 in 1985. Webb (9-0, 2.56 ERA) has made it look easy, pitching at least six innings in each start and giving up three or fewer runs in eight of the nine.
He tossed 7 1-3 innings against Colorado on Thursday, allowing three runs and striking out eight in an 8-5 victory.
“It’s pretty amazing,” said Webb, who won six straight starts during his scoreless innings streak in July and August of last year. “It’s getting to be amazing. Things are just happening.”
The right-hander, who captured the NL Cy Young in 2006 despite winning only 16 games, is more than halfway to that number. He had won just 65 games in 163 starts before this season, even though he came in with a 3.22 career ERA.
The low victory total was due in large part to Arizona’s offense, which has been ranked in baseball’s bottom half through most of Webb’s career. This year, the Diamondbacks - third in the majors with 240 runs - are supporting their ace with nearly seven runs per nine innings.
“Almost every time that I’ve been out there this year I’ve had a lead in the bottom of the first or second inning,” Webb told his team’s official Web site.
On Wednesday, however, Webb may have to bail out Arizona’s struggling bats. The Diamondbacks (28-17) have scored only eight runs in their last three games, losing twice. They’ve managed just 11 runs in their last five road games, the latest of which was a 3-2 defeat to the Marlins on Tuesday.
“We didn’t hit when we needed to,” said outfielder Eric Byrnes, batting .133 in May. “We’ve just got to hit better in those situations.”
Florida continues to be carried offensively by second baseman Dan Uggla, who hit his 14th home run Tuesday. Uggla has hit in 10 straight games, batting .543 with six homers and 12 RBIs over that span. Ten of his home runs have come in his last 16 games.
Star shortstop Hanley Ramirez, however, is 1-for-15 with 10 strikeouts in his last four games. He signed a six-year, $70 million contract Saturday.
Since losing four straight last week, the Marlins (25-19) have won two of three to remain in first place in the NL East - a surprise from the team with the lowest payroll in the majors this season. Their series against Arizona is their first against a winning team since they played the Los Angeles Dodgers three weeks ago.
“We’ll just keep plugging away,” closer Kevin Gregg said. “Everybody is looking at you like, ‘These guys aren’t any good.’ But we’re at the top of the division, where everybody wants to be.”
Florida sends Ricky Nolasco (2-3, 5.18) to the mound to face Webb. The right-hander hasn’t pitched more than six innings in a start this season, but he’s allowed two or fewer runs in three of his last four outings.
Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez sounded undaunted by Webb’s streak.
“He has given up runs,” Gonzalez said. “We’ll show up.”
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