Montero’s big fly lifts D-backs to series win over Padres: By The Numbers

Jun 29, 2014, 5:19 AM | Updated: 5:20 am

Arizona Sports

Coming into Saturday’s National League West contest at Petco Park, San Diego Padres left-hander Eric Stults sported a 2-10 record with a 5.49 ERA and a 1.54 WHIP.

However, all those woeful statistics meant little against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks, as Stults was virtually untouchable for the first five innings.

In the sixth, though, he regressed back to what’s become his unfortunate mean.

D-backs catcher Miguel Montero belted a 1-2 offering from the lefty over the wall in right for a two-run shot — providing all the run support Arizona would need.

Montero’s 11th long ball of the season held up in large part because of the impressive outing right-hander Josh Collmenter turned in on the mound.

Facing the league’s worst offense, Collmenter twirled 5.1 innings of ho-hum baseball, allowing just one run on five hits.

Backed by Collmenter’s performance, Montero’s timely blast and stellar relief out of the bullpen, the D-backs secured a series win over the Padres with a 3-1 victory.

Here’s a look back at the two-run win by the numbers:

1:

The Padres’ lone run of the night against Collmenter came in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Tommy Medica.

Collmenter has allowed a first-inning run in seven of his 14 starts.

3:

Paul Goldschmidt reached base safely for the 20th consecutive game Saturday in large part due to three free passes. Goldschmidt has been walked three times in a game on three different occasions this season, but all three have come in the last 10 games.

5:

Facing the team that drafted him for the first time, reliever Matt Stites maneuvered his way out of the two-on, one-out jam he inherited in the sixth.

Collecting the frame’s final two outs with a pair of strikeouts, Stites recorded the fifth consecutive scoreless outing to begin his big league career.

6-of-15:

Kirk Gibson has not had the best of times with instant replay this year. Right before his team’s go-ahead home run, Gibson challenged that Martin Prado was safe on a bang-bang play at first. The call was not overturned, giving Gibson just a 40-percent success rate (6-of-15) thus far.

9:

Following Saturday’s start, Collmenter improved to 7-4 on the season. Of those seven wins, three have come in the last nine days.

11:

With his big fly in the sixth, Montero tied his total (11) from all of last season. His 46 RBI on the campaign are also four more than he had all of 2013.

13:

Stults has allowed at least one home run in 13 of his 17 starts in 2014.

16:

For the 16th time in 20 appearances vs. the NL West, left-handed relief pitcher Oliver Perez allowed no runs.

Perez has allowed just one earned run in his last 17.2 innings pitched overall.

20:

Arizona won a series for just the third time in the month in June. The D-backs’ last series win came 20 days ago in a three-game set with the Atlanta Braves.