Arizona was playing poorly on this homestand, and against the team with the worst record in baseball, the lowly Houston Astros.

Just like that, the home boys fell behind 7-1, and the relatively small crowd at Chase Field (announced attendance was 17,814, but it seemed about half that to those of us who were there, unless the D-Backs were counting those with multiple personalities) was not happy.

In this instance, the unhappiness manifested itself with an almost-eerie silence that made our ballgame-viewing associate mutter something about a morgue.

Then, things turned.

Pitcher Micah Owings, recently called up to the bigs from Triple-A Reno handled the Astros' bats with seeming ease.

Gerardo Parra ended up with four hits, and Justin Upton added three more (and had four RBIs) as Arizona clawed back for an impressive 11-9 win.

Relief ace J.J. Putz made a nice diving stop in the ninth inning, showing more agility than we figured the big guy had in him.

No doubt, Putz was one of the D-Backs' MVPs over the course of the long season.

It wasn't pretty, as the saying goes, and let's stop with the cliche-making right there.

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