PHOENIX (AP) – Merrill Kelly gave up one run and four hits over six quality innings Tuesday night. That’s not quite up to the Diamondbacks’ lofty standards these days, but it’ll certainly do.
Kelly gave Arizona another stingy pitching performance; Carson Kelly added a two-run homer, and the Diamondbacks stayed on a roll with a 5-1 win over the San Diego Padres. Coming off a doubleheader sweep in Atlanta on Sunday in which Madison Bumgarner pitched a no-hitter that doesn’t count in the record book and Zac Gallen threw a one-hitter in a pair of seven-inning shutouts, Merrill Kelly kept up the mound mastery.
After watching Zac and Bum do their thing, everyone needs to step up their game,” he said.
The Diamondbacks have won seven of eight, improving to 12-11 for the season. It’s the first time they’ve been above .500 this year. “The reason we’re playing good baseball right now is our starting pitching,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “Easy to say that after Atlanta, but even before that, we’ve had some good pitching the past ten days.”
Merrill Kelly (2-2) struck out five and lowered his ERA to 6.33 after struggling in his first four starts of the season.
Carson Kelly’s long, high-arching homer in the sixth pushed Arizona ahead 5-1 and chased San Diego starter Chris Paddack (1-3) from the game. It was the catcher’s sixth homer of the season. “I was just looking for a heater, staying with my approach,” Carson Kelly said. “He left a pitch up in the zone and put a good swing on it.”
The Diamondbacks took a 2-0 lead in the second inning after Trent Grisham dropped Nick Heath’s line drive into the left-center gap. It looked as though Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar could have made the easier play, but Grisham called him off, and the ball ricocheted off his glove and rolled to the wall.
Carson Kelly and Nick Ahmed scored, while Heath made it to third. It was a tough break for Paddack, who was very effective for much of the night. He gave up three earned runs over 5 1/3 innings.
“He was as good as I’ve seen him in a long time tonight,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said. “He pitched better than the line. I think he deserved better.”
Fernando Tatis Jr. scored San Diego’s lone run after reaching base in the sixth on a leadoff double.
THE NO-HITTER THAT WASN’T
Bumgarner’s won’t go into the official list of no-hitters. MLB’s eight-man committee on statistical accuracy decided 1991 that a no-hitter was a game of nine or more innings that ended with no hits.
It took Bumgarner 98 pitches to get through the seven innings. If he had been trying for a nine-inning no-hitter, Lovullo hinted that Bumgarner would have been allowed to throw somewhere in the range of 120 to 130 pitches before getting taken out of the game.
It’s a decision the manager is glad he didn’t have to make.
“He would have body-slammed me off the mound,” Lovullo laughed. “There’s no doubt about it.”
Arizona did have some fun with the non-accomplishment. The team sent a press release on Tuesday entitled “D-backs ‘Will Not’ Create Special Ticket Offer For The No-Hitter That Didn’t Happen.”
The club is offering $14 tickets for Friday’s and Saturday’s games against Colorado, commemorating that the D-backs pitchers gave up just one hit through 14 innings against the Braves on Sunday.
