Javier Baez continued his hot streak by belting a grand slam to lead the Detroit Tigers to a 5-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night at Phoenix.
Robbie Grossman hit a run-scoring double and Jeimer Candelario had two hits for Detroit, which snapped a three-game slide and won for just the third time in its past 12 games.
Baez has slugged four homers in the past six games after enduring a deep slump in his first season with the club. He signed a six-year, $140 million deal as a free agent in the offseason.
Arizona lost its fourth straight game and fifth in its past six contests. The Diamondbacks had three hits, all singles.
Detroit’s Rony Garcia (2-2) gave up one run and three hits over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out three and walked two.
Four relievers combined to no-hit the Diamondbacks over the final 3 2/3 innings. Alex Lange got two outs in the sixth, Michael Fulmer worked the seventh, Andrew Chafin pitched a perfect eighth and Gregory Soto fanned two in a flawless ninth.
Arizona’s Merrill Kelly (6-5) gave up four runs and seven hits over six innings. He struck out five and walked one.
Detroit loaded the bases to start the third on consecutive singles by Eric Haase, Victor Reyes and Riley Greene.
Baez came up and unloaded on a belt-high curveball by Kelly and sent it 459 feet into the stands in left-center field. It was Baez’s team-best seventh homer of the season.
Arizona got on the scoreboard in the fourth when Christian Walker and David Peralta singled with one out and Walker scored on Josh Rojas’ sacrifice fly.
Detroit tacked on a run in the eighth inning. Miguel Cabrera singled off Sean Poppen with one out, and pinch runner Willi Castro scored from first on Grossman’s double to deep left that landed just inside the foul line.
–Field Level Media