D-Backs notebook: Owings owns up to it

Pitcher Micah Owings said he was pleased with his 70-pitch outing for the Diamondbacks’ instructional league team Tuesday in Tucson, saying he wanted to get a feel for his stuff in his first live game since a Sept. 27 victory in Pittsburgh.

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Owings faced a batter that he could see in his start Game 4, outfielder Willy Taveras, who played on the Rockies’ instructional league team.

Owings, who tied for second in NL with 14 hit batsmen, hit Taveras twice — once with a slider.

“I didn’t even know it was him that was in the box, to be honest with you,” Owings said.

“I knew he was down there to get some at-bats, but wasn’t really paying attention to who was up to the plate. I wasn’t trying to hit anybody. And one of them was a 1-2 pitch.

“That’s not the kind of guy I am. I’m definitely not trying to hit anybody on purpose.”

Taveras was added to the Rockies’ 25-man roster for the series after hitting and doing some running drills during a workout Wednesday. He said Owings apologized to him Wednesday.

‘I know him’

The ties that bind the Diamondbacks and Colorado go all the way to Cleveland and Vancouver, B.C.

When D-Backs general manager Josh Byrnes was in Cleveland’s scouting department in 1999, he attended a Team USA game in Tucson to give high school draftee Jeff Baker one more chance to turn Clemson down and sign a pro contract.

That did not work, but while there, Byrnes spotted a baby-faced left-hander with a mid-80s fastball pitching for Team Canada.

Byrnes asked around, found out the player had not been drafted, and got his phone number.

A few days later, Jeff Francis picked up the phone and got a contract offer from Byrnes.

“The tangled web here …” said Byrnes, who also spent three years in the Rockies’ front office before going to Boston and, then, the D-Backs.

“He (Francis) wisely turned it down and went to college and became the ninth pick in the country.”

By that time, Byrnes was in Colorado.

“He had a very good delivery, very loose arm, good pitcher’s body,” Byrnes said.

“Getting to know him, his intellect, he’s so smart he can apply what he has learned, and that’s made him a better pitcher.”

Francis: “It shows how small the baseball community is. What a small world it is.”

HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE

It is down on the list, but the D-Backs are glad to have the extra game at home in this series.

“Huge? No,” Tony Clark said of home-field advantage.

“But it is an issue, from a standpoint that our record indicates that we are more comfortable at home.”

The D-Backs were 50-31 in home games this season, one fewer victory than Colorado and Milwaukee, which led the league. The Rockies were 51-31 after their playoff victory over San Diego.

SHORT HOP

The D-Backs do not plan to release their roster for the series until today, but they are expected to keep the same 25 players – 14 position players and 11 pitchers – that they carried against the Cubs.