PHOENIX -- Austin Gomber gave the Rockies a second straight solid start, but for the second night in a row, the D-backs escaped with a narrow win against the Colorado bullpen.

Staked to a one-run lead in the ninth inning, rookie closer Victor Vodnik lost a two-out, bases-loaded battle against the red-hot Jake McCarthy, who sent a walk-off single into left field to give the D-backs a 4-3 victory and their 17th win in their last 20 games.

¡°A really good matchup of two young players,¡± Rockies manager Bud Black said. ¡°McCarthy¡¯s kind of settled in to being a guy the Diamondbacks are counting on, where he hit fifth in the lineup last night, hit second in the lineup today. He¡¯s really swinging the bat great. And [Vodnik] has been throwing the ball really well, a rookie being thrust into the ninth inning and performing.

¡°Like I told Victor, no player is invincible, whether it¡¯s McCarthy or Vodnik. But that was a good battle -- two strikes, 2-2 count and a 100 mph fastball up out over the plate and he put the bat on it.¡±

Black, a veteran manager who had 15 big league seasons as a pitcher, knows as well as anyone alive what the 24-year-old Vodnik had to have been feeling, so he had a private meeting with the right-hander after the game.

¡°He knows what it¡¯s like, you know. He¡¯s seen it. He¡¯s been through it,¡± Vodnik said. ¡°It feels good that he had my back, and now, I mean, I just have to let this one go and just keep going.

¡°It¡¯s just frustrating, you know. Gomber did a great job and [Tyler Kinley] did, and so did Noah Davis. But hitters are pretty good, too, sometimes.¡±

Gomber, who was coming off a five-run, three-inning outing against the Mets, limited the D-backs to two runs on six hits and a walk over six innings, striking out four.

¡°It felt good,¡± Gomber said. ¡°I was a little erratic at times, but I was able to make pitches when I needed to.¡±

The lefty also turned in his ninth straight start with one or zero walks, which has been a point of focus this season.

¡°When I walk guys, I¡¯m going to have a hard time, flat out,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ve just made it a priority over my career, and been doing a good job of it this year just putting the ball in the strike zone, making guys earn their way on.

¡°You¡¯re going to give up hits, but especially playing in Coors Field I think free passes come back to kill you.¡±

With Gomber¡¯s effort coming on the heels of rookie Bradley Blalock¡¯s impressive debut, this series has been a relative boon for the Rockies¡¯ rotation, which had turned in only 24 1/3 innings in the seven games prior, the fourth-fewest over any seven-game stretch in franchise history.

¡°That was a game that, in my eyes, was a Gomber game,¡± Black said. ¡°Six solid innings, a couple of runs, six hits, just the one walk, couple punchouts -- he threw the ball great.¡±

Unfortunately for the Rockies, they don¡¯t have any wins to show for this two-game rotation renaissance. Monday¡¯s setback came after the D-backs scored the tying and go-ahead runs on back-to-back wild pitches by Kinley in the seventh inning.

Kinley was able to bounce back on Tuesday with a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and Black was glad he was able to give the veteran right-hander that chance.

¡°All managers will tell you they want to get their guys back on the horse as quickly as possible,¡± Black said. ¡°And if there¡¯s a situation where you [show players you] believe in them and trust them and have confidence in them, it helps them long term.

¡°Tyler¡¯s thrown the ball really well. He¡¯s pitched pretty well over the last month, so for us it was very practical to get him back in there. We trust him. He¡¯s one of the guys we¡¯ve leaned on in the bullpen during his tenure here.¡±