D-Backs notebook: Young’s huge game falls just short of cycle

DENVER - Chris Young might not have felt at the top of his game, but his numbers looked it.

Young drove in four runs, scored four and was a double short of the cycle in the Diamondbacks’ 13-4 victory over Colorado on Sunday.

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“I wasn’t feeling sexy by any means,” Young said.

“I mean, I felt all right. Then that first blooper fell in …”

Young’s bloop single to center field in a five-run first was only the beginning. He hit a bases-empty home run in the second inning and a three-run triple in the fifth before walking and scoring in the seventh.

He had three of the D-Backs’ season-high 19 hits.

“You can kind of breathe a little,” Young said of the outburst.

“Honestly, it was one of those days where everything was falling. We had a lot hard hits and a lot of bloopers. When you have both of those going, it’s going to turn out good. Our offense came up big.”

Young walked in the seventh and lined out in the ninth knowing he needed a double for the fourth cycle in franchise history, after Luis Gonzalez, Greg Colbrunn and Stephen Drew, who accomplished the feat Sept. 1.

“No doubt I was going for it,” Young said.

“If I hit a ground ball to shortstop, I was going to keep running.”

Young is the fifth NL player to drive in four runs and score four this season, joining Xavier Nady, Ryan Howard, Brian Giles and Alfonso Soriano.

“It was a big day for him, and he needed that,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It will be good for him going forward, confidence-wise.”

WEBB GOES FOR NO. 22

Brandon Webb will try to distance himself even further from fellow Cy Young contender Tim Lincecum in St. Louis tonight, in his penultimate start of the season.

Webb leads the NL with 21 victories, four more than Lincecum, after winning his last two starts.

While the team is of paramount importance, Webb said, “I’m going to do everything I can to put myself in position” to win the Cy Young, “but you never can tell how they are going to vote.”

Webb won the 2006 Cy Young Award when he tied for the league lead with 16 victories and had a 3.10 ERA. He was 10-9 with a 2.84 ERA in 2003 but lost the NL Rookie of the Year award to Dontrelle Willis, who was 14-6 with a 3.40 ERA.

“I’ve been on both ends,” Webb said.

WHITESELL GOES DEEP

Josh Whitesell hit his first major league home run Sunday, a 405-foot pinch-hit homer to right-center field with two outs in the ninth inning. Right fielder Brad Hawpe did not even take a step, knowing it was out.

“I was kind of floating around the bases,” said Whitesell, who showed his power at Triple-A Tucson this season with 36 doubles, 26 homers and 110 RBIs.

Whitesell hit a 2-0 fastball that was low and inside.

“Most left-handed hitters like that,” he said of the location. “I took my best hack at it. It was really exciting.”

SHORT HOP

The D-Backs are 12-3 against Colorado and have won all five series between the two with one remaining, the final three regular-season games at Chase Field this weekend.