Christian Walker hit a tiebreaking homer and drove in two runs and Zac Gallen tossed seven strong innings to lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 5-2 victory over the Miami Marlins on Monday night at Phoenix.
Gabriel Moreno went 3-for-4 with one RBI as Arizona won for the seventh time in 10 games. Walker’s tape-measure homer in the sixth inning put Arizona ahead to stay and helped send the Marlins to their sixth setback in seven games.
Gallen (5-1) gave up one run and five hits while winning his fifth straight decision. He struck out seven and walked one. The bases on balls to Jorge Soler to start the sixth inning ended his streak of 35 2/3 innings without walking a batter.
Jose Ruiz was charged with one run, three hits in 1 2/3 innings and Joe Mantiply allowed a run-scoring hit in the ninth before recording the final out for the Diamondbacks.
Emmanuel Rivera, Pavin Smith and Walker all added two hits as part of Arizona’s 13-hit attack.
Jesus Sanchez was 2-for-3 with an RBI for Miami. Garrett Hampson delivered a pinch-hit RBI double in the ninth for the Marlins’ other run.
Arizona’s Lourdes Gurriel Jr. walked as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning. The Cuban-born Gurriel was excused from pregame activities and wasn’t in the starting lineup so he could get his U.S. citizenship.
Miami’s Braxton Garrett (1-2) was charged with four runs and seven hits over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out six and walked one.
Garrett was sharp through five innings. He was pummeled by the Atlanta Braves for 11 runs and 14 hits — including four homers — in 4 1/3 innings in his last outing.
Walker hit a mammoth 459-foot homer to left field off Garrett with one out in the sixth to snap a 1-1 tie. It was his ninth blast of the season.
Evan Longoria and Smith followed with singles to end Garrett’s outing. Andrew Nardi entered and was greeted with Moreno’s sharp RBI single to center to make it 3-1. Ketel Marte had a run-scoring infield single later in the inning.
One inning later, Rivera hit a leadoff double and later scored when Smith stroked a two-out single to center to make it 5-1.
Arizona went ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning when Rivera led off with a single and scored on Walker’s double to left center.
The Marlins tied the score in the fifth when Nick Fortes singled with one out and Sanchez followed with an RBI double to left.
–Field Level Media