The Diamondbacks crushed the Angels 9-4 at Chase Field. A big night up and down the lineup, with six different players collecting a hit in this game, paced a 15-hit attack from offense. Five players collected multihit games, four of them getting three hits, with Corbin Carroll and Randal Grichuk finishing a home run and a single shy of the cycle.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!“This is what we’re capable of doing,” said Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo on the television broadcast. “When you envision things and when you look at things, these are the types of games offensively that we’re very capable of night in and night out.”
Grichuk had never hit for the cycle at any point in his career, although he came close on July 29, 2019. He had two at-bats with a chance to pull off the feat but walked and flied out to the wall. Carroll’s bid for the cycle came to an end in the eighth, flying out to center. Lovullo couldn’t recall if he had ever seen a game with two players get an at-bat with a chance to hit for the cycle in the same game.
Arizona scored first in the second inning. Triples by Grichuk and Carroll got the first run home, then Geraldo Perdomo singled on the first pitch he saw to make it 2-0. In his first game back from the injured list, Perdomo had two hits and a walk from the No. 9 spot in the order while also looking very solid defensively at shortstop.
“Gerry just quarterbacks things out there, he’s very comfortable,” said Lovullo. “The first pitch that he sees, he lines into left field, talk about readiness. That was a quality at-bat, scored a big run for us.”
After the Angels tied the game in the top of the third, the Diamondbacks regained the lead in the bottom half. Gabriel Moreno doubled to lead off the inning, then scored on a two-out, two-run home run from Grichuk. The hit proved to be the difference in this game, as the Diamondbacks never looked back from there.
That ball was Grichuked! Randal is halfway to the cycle here in the 3rd with a triple and a homer. pic.twitter.com/E2x8UeQtro
— Michael McDermott (@MichaelMcDMLB) June 12, 2024
Jordan Montgomery was the beneficiary of this run support. Montgomery rebounded to give the Diamondbacks a solid start, holding the Angels to three runs on six hits, one walk, and three strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings. It was a step in the right direction for the left-hander, who got hammered in his previous two starts. Accounting for those recent outings, Lovullo decided to turn it over to the bullpen and give Montgomery a chance to pick up a win. With the Diamondbacks needing to get more consistent outings from their starting rotation, it was an encouraging sign.
“I felt like the first inning was a little bit of a grind for him, found his way after the second inning and got on a nice mini roll,” said Lovullo. “He started to shape his pitches, I saw the changeup coming out and got some swing-and-miss with that, started to command the baseball. It looked like he made some improvements and was gaining confidence each inning he was going back out there.”
They broke the game open in the seventh inning. Carroll singled on a well-placed chopper to third and Perdomo caught Luis Rengifo playing too deep a third with a bunt single. Following a walk to Ketel Marte to load the bases, Moreno and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. joined the three-hit club with singles that pushed the lead up to six.
The Diamondbacks will host the Angels for the second game of this midweek series. Right-hander Slade Cecconi (1-4, 5.66 ERA) takes the mound for Arizona while Jose Soriano (3-5, 3.64 ERA) goes for Los Angeles. First pitch at Chase Field is scheduled for 6:40 P.M. MST.
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Michael McDermott covers the Arizona Diamondbacks and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @MichaelMcDMLB
