Nolan Arenado homered and Merrill Kelly stifled the San Diego Padres over seven innings as the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks earned a 3-1 win on Thursday night to split the teams’ four-game series.
Kelly (7-8) allowed just three hits and three walks, striking out six and improving to 10-6 in his career against San Diego. Kevin Ginkel pitched a clean eighth and Paul Sewald took care of the ninth for his 21st save. The trio combined to retire the last 14 batters they faced.
Griffin Canning (1-7) absorbed the loss, yielding seven hits and two runs in 4 2/3 innings while walking none and striking out five. The Padres didn’t get a hit after Manny Machado’s one-out single in the fourth.
Arizona took the lead for good in the fifth when Geraldo Perdomo grounded a two-out single up the middle to score Tommy Troy, who singled to left and moved to second on Tim Tawa’s sacrifice bunt.
Arenado gave the Diamondbacks insurance in the sixth when he golfed a low splitter from reliever Yuki Matsui 387 feet into the seats in left-center. It was Arenado’s 11th homer of the year and second of the series.
Machado gave San Diego a 1-0 lead in the second when he smoked a first-pitch fastball 368 feet over the right-field wall for his 19th homer of the year.
Canning held the lead until the fourth, when Arizona tied the game via his two-out wild pitch that scored Max Kepler after he singled with two outs and reached third on a single by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. The Diamondbacks might have scored more in the inning but Corbin Carroll’s apparent leadoff double became an out when replay detected he came off second base on his slide.
However, it turned out not to matter as the Padres managed only one hit besides Machado’s two. Fernando Tatis Jr. singled in the third but was picked off first for the third out.
Perdomo finished with two of Arizona’s eight hits.
–Field Level Media
