Corbin Carroll hit a pair of solo homers and Merrill Kelly tossed seven strong innings as the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks opened a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants with a 2-1 win on Monday night.
Kelly (4-2) allowed one run on eight hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. Jalen Beeks followed with a scoreless inning before Shelby Miller retired the Giants in order in the ninth for his second save.
Gabriel Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. had two hits apiece for Arizona, which has alternated losses and wins over the past 10 games.
Carroll began the third inning by depositing a 2-1 fastball from Justin Verlander (0-3) over the left-center-field wall. He led off the fifth inning with a blast to right field, his 13th homer this season.
Heliot Ramos had three hits for San Francisco, which lost its fourth straight game. Ramos is batting .650 (13-for-20) over his past six contests.
Verlander gave up two runs on nine hits over six-plus innings. He walked one and struck out five.
San Francisco got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when Willy Adames hit a leadoff double and scored on Christian Koss’ two-out single.
Adames’ double was the lone extra-base hit for the Giants, who have scored one run in three of their past four games.
San Francisco put two runners on with one out in the seventh inning, but Kelly escaped the jam when Luis Matos struck out and Koss popped out.
Gurriel turned in the defensive play of the game in the eighth inning with a jumping catch on Ramos’ liner to left field. The play came at the end of an 11-pitch at-bat with a runner at first.
Arizona appeared to score a run in the first inning when Carroll drew a leadoff walk and raced home on Josh Naylor’s two-out drive to right-center field. However, Carroll had to return to third base after Naylor’s hit got stuck under the wall and was ruled a ground-rule double. Both runners were stranded when Eugenio Suarez grounded out.
–Field Level Media
