Diamondbacks Snap Streak, Dodgers Split Series with Padres
The Arizona Diamondbacks (41-34) bid goodbye to their four-game win streak on Sunday after losing to the Cincinnati Reds (45-32), 4-2.
The Reds dominated the game, thanks in part to righty Mat Latos’ (7-1) pitching. He tied a career-high 13 strikeouts, allowing one run, six hits and one walk over 7 2/3 innings. There were no strikeouts by Latos until after second inning before he got hot.
In addition to Latos’ pitching, Shin-Soo Choo nailed a leadoff homer in the first inning while Brandon Phillips contributed his own two-run homer in the same inning off unfortunate pitcher, Arizona’s righty Randall Delgado (0-1).
By the second inning, the Reds had a 4-0 advantage.
In his second start, Delgado pitched for five innings, giving up four runs (three earned) with six hits.
With the win, the Reds avoided a sweep. Phillips said of the win via MLB.com, “It was very important. You never want to get swept. Just getting that win, we showed that we’re still here. I felt like we should have won yesterday. All you can do is learn from your mistakes and stay hungry. I’m glad we got the job done today.”
For Arizona, it took them until the eighth inning to get a run once Latos became fatigued and the reliever Aroldis Chapman entered the game. But the two runs were too little, too late.
The Diamondbacks remain at the top of the NL West with the San Francisco Giants (38-37) as its closest foe, six games behind.
Aaron Hill
On Tuesday, Arizona will get its second baseman, the 2012 Silver Slugger winner Aaron Hill, back as he’ll be activated. This comes after a DL stint thanks to a left broken hand; he’s been inactive since April 14. The team will begin a three-game series against the Washington Nationals (37-38) on Monday.
Prior to his injury, Hill’s stat line included .306/.405/.556 in 10 games.
The Diamondbacks sit at +2000 to win this year’s World Series.
Dodgers defeat Padres, 3-1
Bottom of the division Los Angeles Dodgers (32-42) defeated the San Diego Padres (38-38).
Tied at 1-1 entering the ninth inning, Dodgers Adrian Gonzalez’s hit the tiebreaking home run, followed by teammate’s Hanley Ramirez home run, giving the team a 3-1 win over the Padres. The weekend four-game series ended in a split.
Adrian Gonzalez
Gonzalez said of the game via the Associated Press, “We’re 2-0 when Hanley and I homer in the same game. We need to keep that trend going. We need to produce in the middle of the lineup.”
Ramirez has been playing with a hot bat lately. Over the last six games, he’s gone 11 for 22, six runs, seven RBIs and two home runs.
Dodges lefty pitcher Chris Capuano (2-4), on short rest after Wednesday’s pitching start, had a good day on the mound, throwing five shutout innings, striking out five and walking none.
As for the Padres, righty Andrew Cashner (5-3) only gave up one run over eight innings.
The Dodgers have a nice win steak going at two and will look to make it three–something that hasn’t been done since April 7. They firmly sit in last place, back 8.5 games and on Monday, they’ll have a chance against the second-place Giants to keep the steak alive.
Over the weekend, San Francisco lost three of four games to the lowly Miami Marlins (25-50). The team’s one win came on Saturday, 2-1 and over the series, the Giants scored only eight runs in these four games.
On Sunday, the Marlins Justin Ruggiano, in the leadoff spot, kicked off the game with a home run and hit a second two-run one in the ninth inning. This helped the Marlins defeat the Giants 7-2 on Sunday, representing their 10th win over their last 11 games at AT&T Park.
Both the Dodgers and the Giants are looking to get hot. Looking ahead, the Dodgers sit at +4000 to win this year’s World Series while the Giants are +1800.
