Sedona Red Recap: Pollock, Corbin lead D-backs past Rockies

PHOENIX — A total team effort, perhaps exactly what the Arizona Diamondbacks needed to pull themselves out of their mini-slide.

Five players recorded at least two hits, four players drove in runs and left-hander Patrick Corbin pitched into the seventh inning to push the D-backs past the Colorado Rockies, 8-2, in front of 26,714 at Chase Field on Wednesday.

The D-backs, who had lost the first two games of the series and four of five overall, moved four games clear of the Rockies for the top Wild Card spot and homefield advantage in a one-game playoff.

More importantly, they clinched the season series, 10-8, giving them the head-to-head tiebreaker should the teams finish with the same record at year’s end.

A.J. Pollock homered and drove in four runs. He went 3-for-4.

Paul Goldschmidt, Jake Lamb, David Peralta and Corbin — yes, Corbin — each had two hits, while Lamb, Peralta and J.D. Martinez all had RBI.

Lamb plated two, including his 100th of the season.

Goldschmidt, by the way, became the second player in franchise history to reach 1,000 career hits, joining Luis Gonzalez (1,337).

The D-backs scored in each of the first five innings to go up 5-0. They then broke the game open on Pollock’s three-run home run in the seventh to make it 8-1.

Corbin (14-12) won for the sixth time in seven starts. He held the Rockies hitless for three and shut them out over five innings.

D.J. LeMahieu’s sixth-inning solo home run was the lone blemish on Corbin’s final stat line of 6.2 innings, four hits, one run allowed, two walks and seven strikeouts.

The D-backs put a stop to the Rockies six-game winning streak and season-best eight-game road winning streak.

THE GOOD

For the first time in his four-year big-league career, Lamb has reached the 100-RBI mark. It happened in the first inning. On just the seventh pitch delivered by Rockies starter German Marquez, Lamb singled up the middle to score Peralta and put the D-backs ahead, 1-0. Lamb’s previous RBI high was 91, set last season. Along with Goldschmidt (112), this marks the second time in franchise history the D-backs have had two players with 100+ RBI, joining the 1999 club.

With a double in the first and another one in the second inning, Peralta matched his extra-base hit total from the previous 22 games combined. His second two-base hit scored Corbin all the way from first for the D-backs’ second run of the game. Earlier in the day, Peralta was nominated for the 2017 Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award, which goes to the player whose on-field performance and contributions to his community most inspire others.

Stop if you’ve heard this before: Martinez drives in a run. With one out in the third inning, Martinez doubled to right-center to score Goldschmidt, who had doubled off the center field wall in the at-bat prior, to put the D-backs in front, 3-0. It was Martinez’s 48th RBI in 48 games since being acquired by the D-backs. Martinez finished 1-for-3 with two walks and is now batting .447 (21-for-47) with nine home runs and 19 RBI over his last 11 games.

Dropped in the batting order to “take a little pressure off of him,” according to manager Torey Lovullo, Pollock delivered in the fifth inning. With one out and a runner on first base, Pollock ripped a double off the center field wall. The play scored Martinez to increase the D-backs’ lead to 5-0. Pollock had not batted seventh in the lineup this season, but he came through with three hits, surpassing his total over his last six games in which he had gone 2-for-22.

THE BAD

Held scoreless for the first five innings of the game, the Rockies finally solved Corbin in the sixth. With one out, LeMahieu clubbed a solo home run over the fence in left-center field. It was a 2-1 fastball clocked at 90.9 mph up in the zone that he hit for his eighth homer of the season and third in his career off Corbin, who had not allowed a ball to leave the park in his previous three starts.

STAT OF THE GAME, part I

16: The D-backs tied a season-high with 16 hits; they had done so previously on June 21 at Colorado.

STAT OF THE GAME, part II

4-for-14: The D-backs’ four hits with runners in scoring position doubled their output from the first two games of the series which saw them go 2-for-17 in such situations.

HE SAID IT

“I thought our guys did a great job of being ready to play today in the first inning,” Lovullo said. “Patrick, obviously, set an incredible tone and held a very offensive team down for the majority of the ballgame.”

NOTED

– Corbin threw a first-pitch strike to 19-of-27 batters faced. In addition, he reached a 3-ball count four times.

– Martinez has now reached base safely in 17 consecutive games while hitting .388 (26-for-67) with 22 RBI.

– Jimmie Sherfy has not allowed a run in his first seven outings, limiting the opposition to a .087 average.

– The D-backs and Marlins are the only teams in Major League Baseball with two players who have 100+ RBI each.

– With a first pitch temperature of 102 degrees, the game was played with both the roof and panels closed.

UP NEXT

Unbeaten over his last three starts, Zack Godley gets the ball in the series finale on Thursday. He’ll be matched up against left-hander Chad Bettis.

First pitch is scheduled for 12:40 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning 40 minutes earlier on ESPN 620 AM.

Godley (7-7) did not factor in the decision his last time out. He pitched well, though, limiting the Padres to two runs on four hits with no walks and nine strikeouts in seven innings.

The start prior, Godley beat the Rockies in Colorado. Twice he’s defeated the Rockies this season, posting a 2.77 ERA (4 ER in 13.0 IP), .163 opponent average and 15 strikeouts.

Meanwhile, Bettis (1-2) is making his seventh start since returning from battling testicular cancer. He’s coming off a win over the Dodgers in L.A. in which he allowed four runs, three earned, in five innings.

Bettis has not faced the D-backs this season, but in his career, he’s 1-1 with a 7.30 ERA in nine appearances, including six starts.

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