The Arizona Diamondbacks broke out of a deep funk and now will look to win a three-game series when they face the Athletics on Sunday afternoon in the finale of the set at West Sacramento, Calif.
The Diamondbacks scored just 14 runs while losing nine times in a 10-game stretch. But Arizona scored half that total in one night on Saturday while producing a 7-2 victory.
Ketel Marte, Alek Thomas and Corbin Carroll each hit solo homers as the Diamondbacks snapped a season-worst six-game skid.
The outburst brightened the mood after team brass signaled the club wasn’t part of the National League wild-card chase by trading slugging third baseman Eugenio Suarez, top-flight right-hander Merrill Kelly, first baseman Josh Naylor, outfielder Randal Grichuk and right-handed reliever Shelby Miller over the final eight days of July.
“We’re just going to keep fighting,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said after Saturday’s game. “This was a perfect example of what we’re capable of doing.”
The Diamondbacks are seven games under .500 and nine games behind the San Diego Padres for the third and final National League wild-card spot. But the mood was loose after the game, and the fun began when Marte set the tone by homering as the second batter of the game.
“That was something we needed,” Thomas said. “He’s one of the leaders on this team. We had a tough couple of games, a bad stretch, but he’s the sparkplug. When he’s doing good, we’re doing good.”
Thomas was amused at the sound of the ball off his bat when he hit his blast in the sixth inning.
“Yeah, it echoes a little bit here,” said Thomas, “which is nice and very flattering as a hitter.”
Marte (two hits, one walk), Thomas (two hits, one walk) and Carroll (one hit, two walks) all reached base three times as Athletics pitchers walked eight batters.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the A’s, who fell for just the second time in the past nine games.
Tyler Soderstrom had a two-run double for the Athletics, while Nick Kurtz, Shea Langeliers and Carlos Cortes each had two hits.
Langeliers is 5-for-9 in the series, including a two-run homer in Friday’s 5-1 win. He is batting a torrid .424 (14-for-33) with five homers over the last eight games.
“He’s staying on everything,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said of his catcher. “He seems to be recognizing the breaking ball really well and he’s on the fastball so he’s seeing it really good.”
Kurtz doesn’t have a homer or an RBI in six games since his epic outing against the Houston Astros when he went 6-for-6 with four homers, eight RBIs, six runs and 19 total bases on July 25.
Arizona will send left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (3-7, 5.63 ERA) to the mound on Sunday. He is 0-3 over his last five starts. The outings include 6 1/3 scoreless innings in a no-decision of 3-1 loss to the Houston Astros on July 22 and getting pounded for nine runs (eight earned) and 12 hits over 4 1/3 innings during a 9-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals on July 4.
Rodriguez, 32, last pitched on Monday, when he gave up five runs and eight hits over six innings in a 5-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers. He is 3-4 with a 4.01 ERA in 10 career starts against the Athletics. Gio Urshela (9-for-24) and Langeliers (2-for-5) each have homered against Rodriguez.
Athletics rookie right-hander Jack Perkins (0-1, 2.75 ERA) will make his first big league start. Perkins, 25, gave up a solo homer while recording a two-inning save in a 5-4 win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday in his most recent outing.
Perkins, who has never faced the Diamondbacks, started in all nine of his appearances for Triple-A Las Vegas before being recalled in June. He went 3-2 with a 2.86 ERA and gave up just 25 hits in 44 innings.
–Field Level Media
