Eugenio Suarez snapped a tie with a two-run homer Sunday and Ryne Nelson fired 6 2/3 solid innings as the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks earned a 9-1 win over the San Diego Padres.
Suarez drilled his seventh homer with two outs in the top of the seventh and Geraldo Perdomo aboard after a walk. He lined a Dylan Cease fastball an estimated 350 feet over the left field wall.
Nelson (6-6) gave up only three hits and a run, walking one and fanning five in recording Arizona’s first quality start against San Diego this year. The Padres entered the game averaging 7.6 runs in their first nine meetings with the Diamondbacks.
Cease (7-8) matched Nelson pitch for pitch for most of his seven innings, permitting five hits and three runs while issuing just one walk and striking out eight. But it wasn’t enough to keep Cease from falling to 2-6 in his last eight decisions.
After scoring 15 runs each in splitting the series’ first two games, the teams appeared ready for another high-scoring game in the first inning. Arizona’s Corbin Carroll led off the game by homering to right, his third of the year, and San Diego’s Jurickson Profar lined a solo shot in the bottom of the inning, his 14th.
But pitching prevailed until the Diamondbacks unleashed their lumber in the last three innings. They tacked on a run in the eighth via Gabriel Moreno’s RBI single over a drawn-in infield that scored Kevin Newman from third.
Arizona busted the game open in the ninth as Suarez capped a five-RBI day by ripping a three-run double to the wall in left-center, plating Christian Walker, Jake McCarthy and Perdomo. Alek Thomas added an RBI ground-rule double and Carroll brought in the final run on a double-play grounder.
Suarez finished with three of the Diamondbacks’ 12 hits, while McCarthy and Moreno added two each. They won their second straight game without All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte (lower back tightness).
–Field Level Media
