The 24-year-old rookie southpaw may have struggled a bit in his second appearance in the bigs, but ultimately pitched six scoreless innings to nab his first major league win and help the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Washington Nationals 8-1.
Miley started out the night in shaky fashion, allowing five hits and four walks, but managed to pitch his way out of trouble and strike out four batters. He was aided by solid defense from his teammates (including a highlight-worthy throw from third baseman Ryan Roberts across the diamond to get out Jesus Flores at first) and plenty of run support.
D-Backs manager Kirk Gibson reportedly hasn't held batting practice since Monday afternoon and it's worked wonders on his team's offense. The Snakes went from barely producing a single run to an absolute storm of hits and homers, particularly during the latter innings of last night's game.
That's when Arizona's offense truly came alive, starting with a two-run moonshot from Chris Young in the sixth. Then came the final two frames, when the Diamondbacks began swatting balls all around Nationals Stadium. Miguel Montero's RBI double scored Justin Upton in the eighth, followed immediately by Paul Goldschmidt's two-run homer (which sent kids scrambling through the mostly-empty left field seats for a souvenir).
Goldschmidt, who went four-for-five at the plate during the game, also walloped an RBI double of his own in the ninth. A sacrifice fly by Young and singles from Montero and Aaron Hill also added another two runs in the final inning.
Arizona finishes up its 10-game road trip with a 4-6 record after the win. While it isn't anything to brag about, the Diamondbacks managed to extend their lead to three games ahead of the San Francisco Giants (who lost 4-1 to the Houston Astros on Thursday) in the National League West standings. And that's all that counts, right?
The D-Backs head home to Chase Field, where the San Diego Padres will visit for a three-game series starting tonight. Josh Collmenter (7-8, 3.34 ERA) will walk to the mound, going against lefty Wade LeBlanc (2-2, 4.62 ERA). First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. TV: Fox Sports Arizona. Radio: KTAR 620 AM. For tickets and more information, visit www.dbacks.com.
