Dose of Venom: Diamondbacks’ offense shines again as they win series with Padres

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks got their first series win of September as they defeated the San Diego Padres 8-6 Sunday afternoon at Chase Field.

Behind timely hitting, heads-up base running and sloppy Padres defense, the D-backs emerged victorious in their final series against San Diego this season.

Staring pitcher Trevor Cahill looked strong in the first inning — when he struck out the side in order. However, he then got into a bit of trouble when Yasmani Grandal doubled to left-center to begin the second inning. Cahill then walked batter and surrendered the first run of the game to Jake Goebbert, who drove in Grandal with a single to center. Another run would later come in third as Cahill gave up an RBI single to Seth Smith.

“You know my job is to go out there and get one, two, three,” said Cahill. “It’s frustrating, but that’s the way it goes.”

However, Arizona run support put Cahill back in the game when D-backs sent up all nine batters to the plate in the third inning. Didi Gregorius started things off with a single, and Cahill sacrificed himself to move Gregorius to second. Chris Owings then brought in the first D-backs run when he singled to left, and he later advanced to second with his first stolen base since June 19 against Milwaukee. Mark Trumbo later drove in Owings with a single to center.

With Miguel Montero at the plate, he hit what should have been a routine fly ball to left. However, Cory Spangenberg seemed to have simply missed the catch, allowing Montero to reach second base and A.J. Pollock to score. Aaron Hill later drove in Montero with a single to left, giving the D-backs a 5-2 lead.

“It’s being aggressive,” said D-backs manager Kirk Gibson on running the bases. “When you get a chance to get guys moving, you run the bases hard.”

A cat-and-mouse game was brewing when the Padres countered back with two runs of their own in the fourth, as Cahill gave up a leadoff double that would later be brought in by a wild pitch. Spangenberg then drove in a run with a groundout to second, putting the Padres one run behind the D-backs.

Cahill came out of the game after throwing four innings and allowing four runs on five hits. He did, however, rack up seven strikeouts, tying the most he has had since rejoining the D-backs’ starting rotation.

But the strikeout count was not enough for Gibson to keep him in the game.

“There’s a lot of things that go through your mind during the course of a game. We were only up a run at the time, and I thought the best chance for us to win a game is to bring him out of the game and go with Zeke Spruill,” the skipper said.

Spruill entered the game in the fifth and retired the first six batters he faced until giving up a leadoff single to Rymer Liriano. Unfortunately, Spruill let him advance him to second on a failed pickoff attempt, but it did not shake the reliever, as he threw three shutout innings with only one hit.

The D-backs’ offense became silent up until the eighth inning, when they put three additional runs on the scoreboard to increase their lead to 8-4.

“It’s nice to score runs,” said D-backs catcher Montero. “It’s always nice to come out and find someone on base, which will get you more motivated to get a base hit.”

Again the Padres tried to threaten when they supplied back-to-back singles and then a double by pinch-hitter Adam More, which brought in a run. The Padres would drive in an additional run in that final inning, but Addison Reed was able to out of trouble to clinch the series victory.

THE GOOD

The D-backs scored more runs in this series (23) than they did in their whole previous 10-game road trip (21).

Not only did Spruill get his first Major League win, he also got his first Major League hit with a double to right field in the sixth.

The D-backs went through their entire starting lineup in the third, producing five of their eight total runs.

In the eighth inning, Will Harris came into relieve Oliver Perez with a runner on board. After hitting a batter and giving up a single, he was in a jam that got out of by retiring the next two batters with strikeouts.

THE BAD

It was another disappointing start for Cahill on Sunday. Even though his outing did not factor in the final decision, he lasted just four innings and surrendered four runs with two wild pitches. His ERA went from a 5.23 at the start of the game to 5.38 at the end.

NOTED

• Brett Jackson came in to pinch hit for Cahill in the bottom of the fourth, marking his first at-bat since Oct. 3, 2012, when he was a member of the Chicago Cubs. Jackson grounded out to first.

• Sunday was Bark in the Park day at Chase Field. More than 26,000 fans showed up to watch the game as well as 113 dogs.

• Sunday would have been legendary Padres broadcaster Jerry Coleman’s 90th birthday. Along with being named Rookie of the Year in 1949 and World Series MVP in 1950, Coleman was also a two-time war hero, serving in both World War II and the Korean War as a Marine pilot. He worked 42 seasons in the Padres radio booth before passing away earlier this year.

• Farm Update: In the decisive Game 5 of the Pacific Coast League Championship, the Reno Aces fell to the Omaha Storm Chasers 4-0, thus ending their 2014 season.

STAT OF THE GAME

23: The number of runs scored by the D-backs in the three-game weekend series.

HE SAID IT

“When he threw me the 1-2 breaking ball, I was looking for it. so when he threw it down to the dirt, I was thinking, ‘I’m going to get a fastball.’ So I tried to hit it.” – Spruill on his first Major League hit.

UP NEXT

The D-backs begin a three-game series against the NL Wild Card-leading San Francisco Giants. Wade Miley will make his 100th career start.

Miley (7-11, 4.28) is coming off his shortest outing this season — when he was tagged with a loss last Tuesday in San Francisco, in which he gave up three runs on five hits in just two innings. Miley needs 15 strikeouts to reach 500, and hopes to do so at Chase Field on Monday night.

Opposing him is right-hander Ryan Vogelsong (8-10, 3.90), who had a shutout performance his last start against Arizona. Vogelsong allowed just two hits over 6.2 innings in that game. He is 1-1 with a 3.91 ERA in his last four starts against Arizona.

First pitch is scheduled at 6:40 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes earlier on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.