Daulton Varsho and David Peralta hit eighth-inning home runs and Merrill Kelly pitched 8 2/3 innings in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 4-1 win over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night in Phoenix.
Varsho belted his sixth home run of the season with one out in the eighth inning, snapping a 1-1 tie. After Pavin Smith hit a line-drive single to center field, Peralta followed with his fourth home run.
Both long balls came against reliever Carlos Estevez (1-1).
Kelly (3-1) allowed seven hits and two walks while striking out eight. He fanned the first two batters in the ninth before allowing consecutive singles to Elias Diaz and Brendan Rodgers.
Mark Melancon took over and walked Sam Hilliard to load the bases. Jose Iglesias then hit a liner to the mound, and Melancon threw to first in time to get the final out. Melancon, who returned pregame from the COVID-19 injured list, now has five saves.
Arizona has won four consecutive games and six of its past seven. Colorado had won four of its previous five contests.
An anticipated duel between pitchers with two of the best ERAs in the majors went as expected.
Colorado starter Chad Kuhl entered the game with a 1.90 ERA and Kelly was at 1.27. Kuhl wound up allowing one run on three hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings.
The Rockies scored in the first inning. Connor Joe hit a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Charlie Blackmon, went to third on a flyout to center field by Randal Grichuk and scored on C.J. Cron’s double.
Arizona answered in the second after Josh Rojas, playing his first game of the season after recovering from a strained oblique injury, started the inning with a single.
Ketel Marte followed with a double, and Rojas scored on Seth Beer’s sacrifice fly to right field.
Kelly stranded runners on second and third base in the second inning to start a stretch of retiring 13 straight batters.
Ryan McMahon snapped the hitless stretch for Colorado with a single to lead off the seventh. Kelly then retired the next three hitters.
Iglesias doubled to lead off the eighth but was stranded after Kelly again retired the next three batters.
–Field Level Media