D-backs’ Paul Goldschmidt smashes three homers in wild win over Cubs
Aug 3, 2017, 3:43 PM | Updated: 6:59 pm
Paul Goldschmidt hit 3 home runs today – one after each rain delay. pic.twitter.com/qihkErvM4L
— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 4, 2017
Chicago Cubs starter Jose Quintana might want to file this note in his scouting report for the next time he faces the Arizona Diamondbacks: Don’t leave a ball hanging high in the zone against Paul Goldschmidt.
And leave that note for Wade Davis, too.
We promise not to pitch to Paul Goldschmidt tomorrow.
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 4, 2017
Goldschmidt teed off on two of Quintana’s pitches left in the zone during a 10-8 Arizona win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Thursday.
And the top of the ninth, Goldschmidt caught a low 96-mph fastball from Davis to break a 8-8 tie before teammate J.D. Martinez followed with his own solo shot, making it 10-8 in a game that included three rain delays.
Goldschmidt’s first career three-homer outing began with similar success. In the top of the first inning with a full count, Goldschmidt sent a 77-mph curveball from Quintana high into the sky before it fell to earth in left-center field to put Arizona ahead, 3-0,
Goldschmidt later caught a 92-mph fastball in the fifth with Arizona leading 4-1 for a two-run homer that flew over the stands in left field.
In Quintana’s three prior games, his first three with the Cubs after being traded from the White Sox, he’d allowed five earned runs in 19 innings pitched. Quintana left the game after five innings having allowed six earned runs — D-backs infielder Brandon Drury hit a solo shot off him in the first to follow Goldschmidt’s bomb.
Quintana entered the day with two prior appearances against the D-backs in which is ERA sat at 9.58 with Arizona batting .341 against him.
It was a rare thing for Goldschmidt at Wrigley, who had one home run in 64 previous at-bats heading into Thursday. With his three-bomb day, he became the seventh D-back to record a multi-homer day at the ballpark and fifth to tally five or more RBI in a single game there.
The game marked Goldschmidt’s 12th multi-homer day and third this year.
Both dingers were needed for Arizona, as Chicago’s Willson Contreras also homered twice off D-backs ace Zack Greinke.
