Diamondbacks pull away from Giants
PHOENIX -- Pinch hitter Jeremy Hazelbaker sent Matt Moore's final pitch of the game into the right field corner to break a sixth-inning tie, and the Arizona Diamondbacks went on to defeat the San Francisco Giants 8-6 on Wednesday night.
Hazelbaker's RBI double scored Chris Iannetta, who led off the inning with a single. A.J. Pollock singled home Hazelbaker for a 6-4 Arizona lead. In the seventh, Brandon Drury's run-scoring single and Nick Ahmed's RBI double made it 8-4.
With one out in the eighth, the Giants strung three singles together to chase D-Backs reliever J.J. Hoover. Pinch hitter Aaron Hill then drew a walk from reliever Andrew Chafin to drive in a run and cut the deficit to 8-5. Chafin turned around and struck out Joe Panik.
Reliever Tom Wilhelmsen threw a wild pitch with his first offering to make it 8-6, then got pinch hitter Chris Marrero to fly out to end the inning. Closer Fernando Rodney pitched a scoreless ninth to get the save.
Moore (0-1) pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing six runs (three earned) and eight hits. He struck out three and walked two.
Arizona starter Taijuan Walker (1-0) pitched six innings, allowing four runs and seven hits. He struck out seven and walked one.
Pollock had three hits for the D-backs, including two doubles.
In the second, the Giants' Eduardo Nunez singled and stole second. Then second baseman Drury made a great stop on Buster Posey's smash up the middle.
Nunez circled third and headed for home, seeming to surprise Drury, who hesitated before throwing to the plate. Nunez barely beat the throw to Iannetta.
In the third, center fielder Pollock misplayed Brandon Belt's routine single into what the official scorer ruled a triple. Pence singled home Belt, then, after another single by Posey, Brandon Crawford lifted a sacrifice fly to score Pence.
The Diamondbacks scored in the third when Chris Owings singled home Pollock, who had doubled.
The Giants took a 4-1 lead in the fifth when Belt hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot to right.
The D-backs jumped back into a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the fifth with three unearned runs.
The key play was Brandon Belt's error on a ground ball by Jake Lamb near the first base line that allowed Chris Owings (who had doubled) and Paul Goldschmidt (walk) to score. Then, Yasmany Tomas doubled home Lamb.
NOTES: Giants CF Denard Span missed his second consecutive game with a sore hip. Span indicated he doesn't think the problem is serious. "He's doing better today," said manager Bruce Bochy, who cautioned that Thursday is important for Span in "letting us know where he's at." ... 1B Paul Goldschmidt needs one more hit to move into second place on the D-backs' all-time list ahead of Steve Finley (847). Luis Gonzalez is the franchise leader with 1,337. ... The Giants brought in Cody Ross, who played for San Francisco and Arizona, as a part-time coach who will help with the outfielders.