The surging Arizona Diamondbacks will welcome Merrill Kelly back to the mound on Sunday for the finale of a four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies in Phoenix.
Kelly, 35, had been on the injured list since April 23 with a right shoulder strain. He threw 62 pitches over four innings for Single-A Hillsboro on Tuesday and will be activated Sunday to make his fifth start this season.
“Really happy for Merrill, knowing how hard he’s been working to make this day happen,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said Saturday.
Kelly (2-0, 2.19 ERA) will look to pick up where he started the season. The right-hander allowed no more than two runs in any of his first four starts, all of which lasted at least five innings.
He will pitch for an Arizona squad seeking its eighth straight series win after the Diamondbacks dismantled Philadelphia 11-1 on Saturday to secure at least a split in the set.
Arizona is a major league-best 26-11 since entering action June 29 four games below .500.
“They’re well-balanced,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “They’ve got power, they’ve got speed. They can do a lot of things. They can create a lot of runs.”
The Diamondbacks especially have relied on the long ball so far this month. Arizona has scored 36 of its 54 runs in August on home runs (66.7 percent), the highest percentage in the majors.
Lovullo’s squad hit four homers on Saturday, including two from Jake McCarthy, the fourth-year player’s first career multi-home run game. Half of McCarthy’s six long balls this season have come in his past three games.
Ketel Marte also went deep to become the National League’s third player to reach 30 home runs this season, but the All-Star second baseman’s status is shaky for Sunday.
Lovullo said that Marte is day-to-day after leaving Saturday’s game with a bruised left ankle. Marte had his lower leg rolled up on when Garrett Stubbs slid headfirst into second base after hitting a double.
Marte said he’ll be ready to play on Monday, but Lovullo is hopeful that the 10-year veteran will be available at some level in the series finale.
“Minimal (concern). Very, very minimal,” Lovullo said on the severity of Marte’s injury. ” … No long-term ramifications.”
Lovullo will set his lineup on Sunday to face Philadelphia left-hander Cristopher Sanchez (8-7, 3.27), who limited the Los Angeles Dodgers to one run over six innings during the Phillies’ 6-2 road win on Tuesday.
Sanchez may have little room for error on Sunday given Philadelphia’s recent struggles at the plate. After winning Thursday’s opener 6-4, the Phillies have managed three runs on 10 hits in the two losses since.
“It all gets back to the fundamentals. You’ve gotta get strikes, first of all. You’ve gotta be able to use the whole field and you’ve gotta make contact, and we’re not doing that right now,” Thomson said. “We’re chasing a little bit. We’re trying to do too much. Just gotta settle in and get back to the basics.”
Philadelphia plated five runs over 10 2/3 innings against Kelly in his two starts for the Diamondbacks in last season’s NLCS, which Arizona won in seven games.
In three career regular-season starts against the Phillies, Kelly is 1-1 with a 2.75 ERA.
Sanchez, meanwhile, is 1-1 with a 5.19 ERA in three career outings against the Diamondbacks. He stifled Arizona across seven scoreless innings during Philadelphia’s 4-1 home win on June 23.
–Field Level Media