D-Backs’ offense grounded

HOUSTON - May has been more “may not” for the Diamondbacks’ offense.

When Wandy Rodriguez and four Houston relievers kept the D-Backs at bay in a 5-2 victory at Minute Maid Park on Sunday, it was the ninth time in 12 games since the calendar turned that the D-Backs have scored three runs or fewer.

They are 4-8 with 33 runs in that stretch, and home runs by Scott Hairston in the second inning and Orlando Hudson in the ninth were all they could muster Sunday.

“It seems like we have had only one, maybe two guys going at the same time,” said Eric Byrnes, who has started well.

“We need to get four or five guys hot, and that hasn’t happened yet. What can you do? You keep coming out and trying to have good at-bats.

“It’s time for the offense to pick it up and start scoring some runs.”

The D-Backs have not scored more than four runs in a game since Chris Young’s two-homer game triggered a 9-1 victory in Los Angeles on April 30.

They have won while scoring three, three, four and three runs in May, and the offensive malaise coincides with the absence of third baseman and middle-of-the-order hitter Chad Tracy.

Tracy missed Sunday’s game after aggravating his left rib cage injury while running out a double in the fifth inning Saturday. He is tied for fourth in the NL with 13 doubles despite missing nine games.

“Right now, our consistent guys are Byrnes and O-Dog (Hudson). They are the ones that are carrying us right now,” said first baseman Conor Jackson, who had one of the six hits but is hitting .230 with no home runs and five RBIs.

“It’s contagious. We are going to have one of those 30-hit games. We have to keep our confidence up and go pitch-bypitch.”

Hudson (.313), Byrnes (.289) and Tracy (.310) have a combined .303 batting average with 12 homers and 61 RBIs.

The rest of the team is hitting .216 with 19 homers and 83 RBIs.

“We’re getting ones here, ones there. We are not putting up so many crooked numbers,” manager Bob Melvin said.

The D-Backs have not scored more than two runs in an inning since April 30, when they had a three-run inning against the Dodgers.

They had multiple runners on base once Sunday, loading the bases with two outs in the third in a 1-1 game before Byrnes grounded into a force-out at second.

“I need to get those runs in,” Byrnes said. “I (bleeped) away the at-bat.”

Doug Davis (2-4) bobbed in and out of trouble before the Astros finally chipped their way to a 4-1 lead by scoring two runs in the fourth inning and one more in the fifth.

Davis pitched out of a bases-loaded situation in the third inning by getting Jason Lane to fly out on a 12-pitch at-bat, keeping the score at 1-1.

Houston got two runs in the fourth and a run in the fifth.

“I was just working one side of the plate. I couldn’t get the outside corner,” Davis said. “When you work one side, they can wait and get their pitches.

“It was one of those starts you want to throw out. All I had today was my cutter (cut fastball) and my curveball.”

Davis had a streak of four straight quality starts broken while falling to 3-11 against Houston, 0-9 here.

“When you are not scoring any runs, sometimes it puts a little pressure on the pitcher, too,” Melvin said. “They don’t like to make that excuse. They don’t like to think about that. But at some time or other we are going to have to pick it up offensively.”