The Angels have received permission from the Arizona Diamondbacks to interview Jerry Dipoto for the Angels’ vacant GM position.

Dipoto, 43, is the Diamondbacks’ senior vice president for scouting and player development after serving as the team’s interim GM for part of the 2010 season. He joins two Yankees’ execs on the Angels’ emerging list of GM candidates.

The Angels received permission to interview Yankees vice president of amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer and director of professional scouting Billy Eppler earlier this week though none of the interviews are believed to have taken place yet.

The Orioles have also received permission to interview Dipoto for the opening in their front office and that interview could take place as soon as this weekend.

The Baltimore Sun reported that former Angels GM Tony Reagins is also on the Orioles’ list of candidates, though they have not contacted the Angels for permission to interview Reagins yet. Reagins remains under contract with the Angels despite stepping down as GM two weeks ago.

Dipoto is a former pitcher who spent parts of eight seasons in the major leagues (1993-2000) with the Indians, Mets and Rockies. His front-office career began with the Rockies before he moved to the Red Sox in 2004.

He returned to the Rockies as director of player personnel in 2005 then moved to the Diamondbacks a year later when Josh Byrnes became GM. When Byrnes was fired by the Diamondbacks in 2010, Dipoto acted as interim GM for the remainder of the season.

Among Dipoto’s moves as Diamondbacks GM was the trade that sent Dan Haren to the Angels for four pitchers (Joe Saunders, Rafael Rodriguez, Tyler Skaggs and Patrick Corbin). He also traded Edwin Jackson to the White Sox for Daniel Hudson who played a key role in the Diamondbacks’ rotation as they won the NL West in 2011.

Dipoto interviewed for the full-time job as the Diamondbacks’ GM (and has also interviewed for GM openings in Seattle and Washington in the past) but lost out to Kevin Towers. Dipoto returned to his previous position in the front office after Towers stepped in as GM.

DENVER (AP) — Joe Saunders tossed six solid innings, Justin Upton and Miguel Montero homered and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3 on Wednesday night.

Jon McDonald and Gerardo Parra had two hits each for Arizona. The Diamondbacks have won 13 of 15 and increased their lead in the NL West to seven games over San Francisco.

The Giants lost to San Diego 3-1 on Wednesday.

J.J. Putz pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up his 37th saves.

Wilin Rosario, Kevin Millwood and Carlos Gonzalez homered for the Rockies.

Saunders (10-12) won for just the second time since the end of July. He gave up three runs on seven hits, walked one and struck out four to become the third Arizona starter with double-digit wins.

Arizona rallied to take the lead in the sixth. With two outs, McDonald doubled down the left-field line to score Paul Goldschmidt from first. Saunders helped his own cause with a single to right to drive in McDonald and give the Diamondbacks a 4-3 lead.

Upton led off the seventh with his 28th homer to make it 5-3.

Colorado took a 3-2 lead in the fourth on Rosario’s first career homer — a solo shot.

The Diamondbacks jumped ahead 2-0 in the third on Montero’s two-run homer to dead center field, his 15th of the season. The Rockies tied it in the bottom of the inning on solo homers by Millwood and Gonzalez. It was Millwood’s third career homer and Gonzalez’s 25th of the year.

Millwood (2-2) gave up four runs on 10 hits and struck out four in 5 2-3 innings.

Notes: Millwood’s homer was his first since May 18, 2002. … Arizona 3B Ryan Roberts was out of the lineup, but manager Kirk Gibson said it was not because of the spike he took to his left leg in Tuesday’s loss. … Rockies 1B Todd Helton (back stiffness) sat out his fourth straight game. Manager Jim Tracy said Helton could play Friday. … The Diamondbacks send ace Ian Kennedy to the mound Thursday in the opener of a four-game home series against San Diego. … Right-hander Jhoulys Chacin will start for the Rockies when they open a three-game series Friday against Cincinnati.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Read More: Joe Saunders (P – ARI), Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants

The Arizona Diamondbacks claimed a 5-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday with a balanced offensive attack and timely pitching by Joe Saunders. The Diamondbacks are now seven games up on the San Francisco Giants in the NL West.

The two teams remained scoreless through the first two innings until Miguel Montero swatted a two-run homer in the third inning. The Rockies came right back and hit two home runs in the bottom of the inning thanks to Kevin Millwood and Carlos Gonzalez, tying the game at 2-2.

Another home run by Willin Rosario in the fourth inning gave the Rockies the 3-2 edge, but a two-run inning in the top of sixth (courtesy of John McDonald and Saunders) gave the lead back to the Diamondbacks. Justin Upton added another home run for Arizona in the following inning, giving the Diamondbacks a 5-3 lead that they would not relinquish.

Saunders gave up big hits in the third and fourth innings, but rebounded to hold the Rockies to just three runs. In six innings, he gave up seven hits and three runs with four strikeouts and one walk. Bryan Shaw, Alberto Castillo, David Hernandez and J.J. Putz held the Rockies scoreless over the game’s final three innings to secure the Arizona victory.

The Diamondbacks are in control of the NL West and have a seven-game lead on the Giants with 19 games left in the season. Arizona is now 82-61 overall and will look to keep up its strong play in order to secure a postseason berth.

Read More: David Hernandez (P – ARI), Arizona Diamondbacks

No worries here. The Diamondbacks are still 65-4 when leading after seven innings and David Hernandez has had all of four bad outings out of  67 appearances. 54 of those times he gave up zero runs. He’ll be fine and the Arizona Diamondbacks, who “fell” to five games ahead of the Giants will be fine as well.

More troubling than Hernandez, where the two guys who came in after him with two outs. Joe Paterson gave up a triple, a single and a walk and Sam Demel hit a guy and walked a guy before finally getting the final out of the eighth inning. These are guys the D-backs need or at least they need to know if they can be trusted and right now, the answer is no.

The D-backs are back at it on Wednesday to finish the series against the Rockies with Joe Saunders on the mound.

Az Snake Pit has a few other details of the game:

Diamondbacks 3, Rockies 8: Loooosssiing In the Rain – AZ Snake Pit
The Diamondbacks had their usual gaffes and ganders that are normally present: John McDonald lined a double before being thrown out trying to make it to third. Josh Collmenter threw a quality start without walking a batter. Chris Young continued to slump. Miguel Montero knocked in another RBI. Justin Upton mashed the ball some more and Aaron Hill hit, scored, and made that whole ‘not striking out thing’ look really simple.

CBSSports.com wire reports
Sep. 6, 2011

DENVER — The bullpen has played a key role in Arizona’s rise to the top of the NL West this season.

This time, it didn’t work out so well for the Diamondbacks’ relievers.

Troy Tulowitzki homered, Seth Smith tripled twice and the Colorado Rockies rallied to beat streaking Arizona 8-3 on Tuesday night.

It was a rare blown save for the Diamondbacks, who came into the game with a 65-3 record when leading after seven innings and were four outs away from another victory when the Rockies erupted for seven runs against three relievers.

“It was a normal game, just the ending was different,” Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. “Something we haven’t experienced yet. It’s disappointing we lost the game but we’ll regroup, come back tomorrow and be fine.”

Arizona led 3-1 and appeared headed to its fourth straight win when the Rockies rallied two outs in the eighth. With Dexter Fowler on first, Mark Ellis singled to left and Carlos Gonzalez knocked in a run with a single to center off David Hernandez (3-3).

Tulowitzki followed with his 30th homer to make it 5-3.

Hernandez has been reliable all year long but admitted he wasn’t sharp Tuesday.

“I’ve had three of those nights where I’ve given up multiple runs,” Hernandez said. “I hung a slider to Tulo and he did what he’s supposed to do to it.”

Hernandez gave up a single to Ty Wigginton before Joe Patterson came on, and Smith greeted him with an RBI triple that made it 6-3. After Wilin Rosario walked, Jordan Pacheco followed with a run-scoring single.

Sam Demel relieved Patterson and hit Kevin Kouzmanoff with a pitch to load the bases, then walked Fowler to make it 8-3.

“You never expect that,” starter Josh Collmenter said. “Anytime you turn the ball over to our bullpen you expect good results. I’ll give it to them every time and they’ll pick me up.”

After he was lifted from the game, Hernandez was ejected by home plate umpire Todd Tichenor for arguing balls and strikes as he left the field.

“I threw a few off-speed pitches I wanted,” he said. “That’s really not me, I don’t show emotion but when you lose a ballgame it adds a little to it.”

The late rally spoiled a good outing for Collmenter, who gave up one run and five hits in 6 1-3 innings before leaving with runners on first and second. Brad Ziegler got out of the jam when Eric Young Jr. was tagged out at home trying to score on a pitch that went to the backstop and Rosario struck out.

“Josh threw a great game, Ziegler did a great job, it just didn’t go good after that,” Gibson said.

Jordan Pacheco and Carlos Gonzalez had two hits apiece for Colorado, which beat Arizona for just the fifth time in 17 games.

Aaron Hill and Justin Upton had two hits each for the division-leading Diamondbacks, who had won 12 of 13.

Matt Belisle (10-4) got the win in relief.

Arizona snapped a 1-all tie in the seventh. Paul Goldschmidt led off with a double, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Gerardo Parra’s single to left.

The Diamondbacks made it 3-1 when Hill scored from third on a throwing error by third baseman Pacheco in the eighth.

The Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead in the first. Hill and Upton hit consecutive one-out singles to put runners at the corners and Miguel Montero followed with a run-scoring grounder.

The Rockies tied it in the fifth when Smith led off with a triple to center and scored on Pacheco’s grounder to third.

Colorado starter Jason Hammel went seven innings, allowing two runs, one earned, and six hits.

Notes

• Rockies 1B Todd Helton didn’t play for the third straight day due to back stiffness.
• Rockies OF Ryan Spilborghs (right foot) will likely not play the rest of the season.
• The Rockies promoted Pacheco and right-hander Jim Miller from Triple-A Colorado Springs, and brought up catcher Rosario from Double-A Tulsa. They placed INF Jonathan Herrera (right index finger) on the 60-day DL.
• Arizona LHP Joe Saunders will face RHP Kevin Millwood in the series finale Wednesday night.

DENVER (AP) — Troy Tulowitzki homered, Seth Smith tripled twice and the Colorado Rockies rallied to beat the streaking Arizona Diamondbacks 8-3 on Tuesday night. Jordan Pacheco and Carlos Gonzalez had two hits each for Colorado, which beat Arizona for just the fifth time in 17 games. Aaron Hill and Justin Upton had two hits each for the Diamondbacks, who had won 12 of their last 13 to take a seven-game lead in the NL West. Arizona led 3-1 and appeared headed to its fourth straight win when the Rockies rallied for seven runs with two outs in the eighth. With Dexter Fowler on first, Mark Ellis singled to left and Carlos Gonzalez knocked in a run with a single to center off reliever David Hernandez (3-3). Tulowitzki followed with his 30th homer to center to make it 5-3. Hernandez gave up a single to Ty Wigginton before Joe Patterson came on, and Smith greeted him with an RBI triple that made it 6-3. After Wilin Rosario walked, Pacheco followed with a run-scoring single. Sam Demel relieved Patterson and hit Kevin Kouzmanoff with a pitch to load the bases and then walked Fowler to make it 8-3. Matt Belisle (10-4) got the win in relief. Colorado’s rally spoiled a solid outing by Arizona starter Josh Collmenter. The right-hander gave up one run on five hits and struck out four in 6 1-3 innings. Arizona broke a 1-all tie in the seventh. Paul Goldschmidt led off with a double, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Gerardo Parra’s single to left. The Diamondbacks made it 3-1 when Hill scored from third on a throwing error by third baseman Pacheco in the eighth. The Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead in the first when Hill and Upton hit consecutive one-out singles to put runners at the corners and Montero followed with an RBI grounder. The Rockies tied it in the fifth when Smith led off with a triple to center and scored on Pacheco’s grounder to third. Colorado starter Jason Hammel went seven innings, allowing two runs, one earned, on six hits and struck out six. NOTES: Hernandez was ejected from the game by home plate umpire Todd Tichenor as he was leaving the field in the eighth. … Rockies 1B Todd Helton didn’t play for the third straight day due to back stiffness. … Rockies OF Ryan Spilborghs (right foot) will likely not play the rest of the season. … The Rockies promoted Pacheco and right-hander Jim Miller from Triple-A Colorado Springs, and brought up catcher Wilin Rosario from Double-A Tulsa before the game. They placed INF Jonathan Herrera (right index finger) on the 60-day DL. … Arizona lefty Joe Saunders will face Rockies righty Kevin Millwood in the series finale Wednesday night.