Like many of their fellow National League teams have done in abundance this season, the Arizona Diamondbacks traveled to Florida over the weekend and handily won a series against the long-suffering Miami Marlins.
Although the D-backs weren't able to complete the weekend sweep of The Fish, falling 2-1 in Sunday's finale, the team left Miami after taking two out of three games to win their eighth series of the year. Even with yesterday's loss, Arizona is currently atop the NL West standings at 25-19, despite the Colorado Rockies' sweep of the San Francisco Giants.
Arizona poured on the runs on Friday night to open the three-game series versus the Marlins with a 9-2 win. Miami's Kevin Slowey was rocked for three home runs in the first inning as Paul Goldschmidt had a two-run jack (scoring Gerardo Parra) followed immediately by Eric Chavez's 400-foot dinger.
Goldy would get all up in Slowey's grill again in the third with another two-run homer (this time with Didi Gregorius on first), as did Martín Prado, who smacked an RBI single in the same inning to make it 6-0.
Slowey's night came to a close shortly thereafter but the Diamondbacks were able to add additional runs off relievers Wade LeBlanc in the seventh (via a sacrifice fly from Cody Ross) and Jon Rauch in the ninth (thanks to RBI singles by Chavez and Ross).
Arizona wasn't able to stomp all over the Marlins on Saturday night as Miami's kept things scoreless for six innings after giving up a homer to Para on the first pitch of the game. The lone run was all the D-backs needed for the 1-0 win thanks to three-hit shutout by Brandon McCarthy, who earned his first victory of the season and went the distance by pitching all nine innings of the shutout.
The Diamondbacks probably should've saved some of Friday night's juice for Sunday as the Marlins battled back to claim at least one win from the series with a 2-1 defeat of Arizona. Wade Miley was decent on the mound, striking out six and walking only one before giving up a single to Derek Dietrich and an RBI double by Marcell Ozuna in the sixth inning.
Miami's Ricky Nolasco proved to be better, however, fanning 11 D-backs batters and scattering five hits over eight innings of work. Arizona attempted a comeback in the ninth with a double by Gregorius and a Jason Kubel sacrifice fly, but the Marlins bullpen snuffed things out.
The D-backs have a tougher challenge awaiting them in Denver when the begin a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies (24-20) tonight at Coors Field in the Mile High City. It's a good thing then that Arizona's sending Patrick Corbin (6.0, 1.52 ERA) -- arguably their best pitcher this season -- to the hill against Colorado's Jon Garland (3-4, 4.89). First pitch: 5:40 p.m. TV: Fox Sports Arizona. Radio: KTAR 620 AM. More info: www.dbacks.com.
