Randal Grichuk and Corbin Carroll each hit their first home runs of the season, Gabriel Moreno had four hits, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies 3-2 in Denver on Tuesday night.
Christian Walker had two hits and Merrill Kelly pitched six strong innings to help Arizona end a five-game skid and give manager Torey Lovullo his 500th career win.
Kevin Ginkel pitched the ninth to earn his second save. Ezequiel Tovar, Brenton Doyle and Elias Diaz had two hits each for Colorado.
Carroll hit the second pitch of the game into the seats in left for his first home run of the season. Moreno followed with a double and, one out later, scored on Christian Walker’s single to make it 2-0.
Rockies starter Cal Quantrill retired the next two to end the threat. Quantrill (0-2) settled in to pitch six innings, allowing three runs on eight hits and striking out six in his first home start for his new team.
Colorado answered right away. Charlie Blackmon legged out an infield single to lead off the bottom of the first, and Tovar doubled to right to put runners on second and third.
Blackmon scored on Ryan McMahon’s groundout, but Kelly struck out Diaz and retired Kris Bryant on a comebacker to strand Tovar at third.
Grichuk led off the second inning with a home run, his first of the season, to extend Arizona’s lead to 3-1.
It stayed that way until the sixth inning. Blackmon led off with a walk and Tovar singled to put runners on first and second with no outs.
McMahon grounded into a fielder’s choice at third and was caught stealing at second while Tovar took third. Tovar scored on Diaz’s infield single to make it 3-2.
Diaz moved to second on a balk and Bryant walked, but Kelly caught Nolan Jones looking for the final out of the inning.
Kelly (2-0) allowed two runs on six hits and struck out four in six innings.
–Field Level Media