Dose of Venom: D-backs topple Lincecum, Giants

His numbers against Tim Lincecum may not be as impressive as Paul Goldschmidt’s, but Aaron Hill has had some pretty good success facing the Giants starter.

Friday night was no exception.

Hill went 2-for-2 with two RBI and a run scored to help the Diamondbacks hand the Giants their season-worst sixth straight defeat, 4-1 in front of an announced crowd of 29,292 at Chase Field.

“You’ll take every hit you can get,” said Hill, now hitting .579 (11-for-19) in his career against Lincecum. “Obviously, you’re trying to do as much as you can and these guys are a great team. Obviously, Goldy has done what he’s done against him. It’s pretty impressive to watch so I think I grabbed some momentum off that and hopefully keep it rolling.”

With the Diamondbacks trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Hill sparked a two-out, two-run rally with an RBI single up the middle. Martin Prado followed with an RBI double.

The Diamondbacks would add another two-out run in the fifth.

“Those are always big. Those kind of change the game,” Hill said of the team’s timely hitting. “If you can get those two-out knocks, especially with runners in scoring position, it’s a big blow.”

Starter Josh Collmenter, while not efficient, proved to be just good enough to earn the win, his fifth of the season and first since May 29.

“I felt as good as I have in the last handful of starts,” he said. “I was able to make some really good pitches, especially when I needed to, but they battled. They had a lot of long at-bats.”

That ran up his pitch count and forced him out of the game after the fifth inning.
The bullpen did its job to secure the win in the series opener.

“We’ll take it. I mean every win we can get right now,” Hill said. “It was a good win.”

THE GOOD

Goldschmidt improved to 14-for-25 (.560) lifetime against Lincecum with a single to right in his first plate appearance of the game. The base hit also extended Goldschmidt’s streak of reaching base safely to 14 consecutive games, during which time he’s batting .362 (17-for-47).

But Goldschmidt wasn’t done, not with Lincecum. A walk in the fourth and a double—off the left field wall just missing a home run—in the sixth, Goldschmidt is now batting .577 (15-for-26) in his career against the Giants starter.

Hill recorded his first hit of the homestand, snapping an 0-for-12 streak, with a base hit to left to lead off the second. Two innings later, he added another base knock, this one a single up the middle scoring Goldschmidt from second with the Diamondbacks first run of the game.

Though he was gunned down at home plate attempting an inside-the-park home run in the fifth inning, Chris Owings logged his team-high fifth triple of the season, smashing the offering from Lincecum off the center field wall scoring Ender Inciarte with the Diamondbacks third run of the game.

The bullpen quartet of Oliver Perez, Evan Marshall, Brad Ziegler and Addison Reed combined to throw four scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. Reed earned the save, his 17th, striking out the side.

THE BAD

While he limited the damage to only a single run, Collmenter threw 31 pitches in the first inning, a sign of things to come. He fired another 31 pitches in the third and 24 more in the fifth, ending his night after a season-high 109 pitches during which time he walked a season-high four batters.

Three times in the first four innings, Collmenter retired the first two batters of the frame only to give up a 2-out base hit. In fact all four of the hits Collmenter allowed came with two outs, including Pablo Sandoval’s RBI triple in the first, the only run surrendered by the right-hander.

STAT OF THE GAME

4: The Diamondbacks improved to 27-15 when scoring four runs or more; by comparison, they are 5-30 when scoring three runs or less

HE SAID IT

“Kind of unfortunate that I wasn’t more efficient and you leave a lot of work for the bullpen to do, but they were outstanding tonight; as good as I’ve seen them,” Collmenter said. “Sometimes that’s the way it goes. The next time I’ll do what I can to pick them up.”

NOTED

Umpires reviewed the Owings’ play at the plate in the fifth inning and came back 61 seconds later with confirmation of the initial call

Collmenter improved to 5-1 with a 3.78 ERA (19 ER in 45.2 IP) in 16 games, including nine starts against the Giants

Lincecum dropped to 1-8 with a 5.93 ERA (45 ER in 68.1 IP) in his last 11 starts against the Diamondbacks

The Diamondbacks won only their seventh game of the season in which the opponent scored first

UP NEXT

Armed with more RBI than wins, Brandon McCarthy takes the mound for game of the three-game weekend series against the Giants on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes earlier on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

McCarthy (1-9, 5.18) has but one victory, May 3 at San Diego, in 15 starts, yet has three RBI in 27 plate appearances. He’s making his second appearance against San Francisco, having received a no decision after allowing five runs on six hits over 6.2 innings on March 31 at Chase Field.

Fellow right-hander Ryan Vogelsong (4-3, 3.94) provides the opposition. He owns a career mark of 2-4 with a 4.66 ERA (39 ER in 75.1 IP) in 17 appearances, including 11 starts against the Diamondbacks.

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