“There will be nights where I need to do that, but tonight wasn’t a night. It’s too early in the year and I’m getting to where I want to be and I want to walk away from something feeling positive.”

Hirsh (2-4) also walked away feeling good about himself after allowing three earned runs and seven hits in eight innings, walking none and striking out four.

He surrendered two bloop singles in the first inning but retired 14 straight batters until Chris Young’s single with one out in the sixth. Conor Jackson, the next batter, sent a belt-high high changeup down the left field line for his first home run since last October.

Eric Byrnes made it 3-0 when he led off the seventh with his sixth homer.

“It was a very encouraging start for me,” Hirsh said. “It ended up being two bad mistakes today that lost the game. Under normal circumstances, I’m not facing Randy Johnson and we score some runs, and it ends up a lot closer than tonight did.”

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Rockies slugger Todd Helton said Johnson didn’t look like he did before his two-year stint in the American League — he looked better.

“He looks like a smarter Randy Johnson than before. He was conserving energy and when he had to make a pitch, he made a pitch. He didn’t walk anybody and he threw the ball extremely well,” Helton said. “He had better command, but he is still throwing the ball pretty hard. He was impressive, coming back from whatever surgery he had.”

Not that he’s going to pull a Roger Clemens and show up only on the nights he’s scheduled to pitch, but Johnson said he benefited from skipping the team’s trip to Houston so he could stay in Phoenix and work out.

“I’d like to think that my trainer made me feel a little better than I may have felt with an off day here yesterday,” Johnson said. “I won’t make it a routine by any means, but it’s still early in the year.”

Notes: D-Backs 3B Chad Tracy aggravated his pulled rib muscles in his first start since getting hurt Saturday. ... For the first time since July 5, 2005, no walks were issued in a game at Coors Field.

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