Merrill Kelly gave Arizona exactly what it needed, and Lars Nootbaar delivered the swing that cracked the game open.
Kelly teamed with two relievers on a four-hitter, and Nootbaar snapped a scoreless tie with a pinch-hit grand slam in the seventh inning as the Diamondbacks rolled past the San Francisco Giants 7-1 in the first game of Saturday’s day-night doubleheader.
The Giants had already planned for a busy afternoon, with the nightcap set to begin a little more than three hours later after a ceremony to retire Jeff Kent’s number. But before any of that, the opening game turned into a tense duel between Kelly and rookie Matt Wilkinson, with neither side able to break through early.
That changed in the seventh. Wilkinson, called up from Triple-A earlier in the day, walked Gabriel Moreno and Geraldo Perdomo to start the inning.
Ryan Walker came on and got an out, then issued a walk to Tim Tawa to load the bases. That brought up Nootbaar, who had led off Friday’s game with a home run on the first pitch.
This time he worked the count to 2-2 before launching Walker’s pitch into the San Francisco Bay over the wall in right-center for a 4-0 Arizona lead.
Wilkinson was charged with two runs in his third big-league start. He went six-plus innings, allowed three hits, walked two and struck out four.
Kelly was even sharper. The Arizona right-hander was done after seven shutout innings, giving up only two singles and four walks while striking out seven to move to 9-12.
San Francisco’s lone run came in the eighth against Taylor Clarke, when Jung Hoo Lee lined a two-out RBI single that scored Rafael Devers, who had doubled.
Arizona added to the margin late. Geraldo Perdomo drove in a run with a single in the eighth, then Jordan Lawlar delivered an RBI hit and Ildemaro Vargas followed with a double-play grounder in the ninth.
Brandyn Garcia handled the final inning with a 1-2-3 ninth as Arizona won for the seventh time in its last 10 games.
The Giants managed just four hits, with Devers and Lee accounting for all of them. Earlier in the day, Giants advisor to the president of baseball operations Ron Wotus was ejected during the pregame exchange of lineup cards.
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