Diamondbacks score season-high 15 runs to secure series win over Athletics

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks did what they needed to do and then some to secure a third straight series victory, crushing the Athletics 15-5 at Chase Field on Wednesday.

The Diamondbacks scored 14 runs over a three-inning span, which allowed the club to get some of its regulars off the field early before a 10-game road trip.

Arizona improved to 53-49, four games over .500 for the first time since June 4.

“I feel like we needed a win like that,” third baseman Nolan Arenado told Arizona Sports. “I feel like every game we played in lately, it’s been tight and a lot of stressful innings. For us to come out today, day game after a long game yesterday, and put up runs like that against a great arm, it was a great win.”

Season high for home runs

The D-backs entered Wednesday 29th in MLB in home runs, but they made up some of that gap with five of them:

• Fourth inning: Corbin Carroll (solo), Nolan Arenado (solo)
• Fifth inning: Gabriel Moreno (solo), James McCann (two-run), Ryan Waldschmidt (two-run)

McCann and Waldschmidt both reached milestones, as the former hit his 100th long ball and the latter his first. Moreno, McCann and Waldschmidt hit those bases balls 427, 431 and 426 feet to put on a show at Chase Field. Arizona set a season high with seven runs in an inning during the fifth.

The Diamondbacks hit three home runs 425+ ft in the fifth inning

It’s the third time a team has hit 3 homers 425+ ft in an inning under Statcast, joining:

4/27/19 MIN 8th
5/20/17 OAK 5th pic.twitter.com/cC3vy9xS4A

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) July 22, 2026

And the scoring just kept going, as Carroll tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the sixth inning, his first triple of July and league-leading 11th of the season. He still has as many triples as 13 major league teams.

Three walks later, and McCann, Tim Tawa and Waldschmidt drove in four more runs to take a 14-2 lead.

Even more encouragingly, Carroll and Ketel Marte — Arizona’s struggling stars — went 4-for-7 with a single, double, triple and home run between them.

And the bottom of the order kept producing, as Arenado reached base four times with three walks, while Ildemaro Vargas, McCann, Tawa and Waldschmidt each delivered multiple hits.

“Hitting is contagious,” McCann said. “Honestly, the bottom of our order really showed up. And then the top of the order cashed in these guys on base. … It’s just fun. That’s the best way to describe it, it’s just a lot of fun.”

Arizona chased Athletics starter Gage Jump in the fifth inning, and he allowed six earned runs. He had allowed two earned runs across 24 innings on the road this season.

The game was won in the fifth inning, and both teams used a position player to pitch just to get through the game. Vargas pitched in a game he went 3-for-4 in. Moreno even played an inning of third base.

Diamondbacks stacking series wins

This series started with a frustrating loss for the Diamondbacks, somewhat like their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals to open the second half of the year on Friday. Arizona had to grind out an extra-inning win on Tuesday to even the series before taking complete control of the finale.

The up-and-down nature of these last two series has been characteristic of this season, but stacking series wins is the name of the game and will put the D-backs in position to buy at the deadline and push for a playoff spot.

The D-backs drew a four-game series in San Diego, swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles and have now opened the second half with four wins in six games. Arizona has a 9-4 record over its last 13 games, and it entered the evening slate of games on Wednesday tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the third National League Wild Card spot.

“It was quite a homestand and quite a series,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I want this to continue. I want us to go on the road and take the same type of at-bats, have the same type of focus, have an all-field approach. We had several at-bats where we let the ball travel and drove balls to the opposite gap. … We had 15 hits, but we didn’t only use the pull side. Offensively, that’s what we’re capable of doing.”

Why did Ildemaro Vargas pitch?

From a pitching perspective, Merrill Kelly went five innings with two earned runs, a decent start but not as deep as the D-backs could have used given their taxed bullpen. He was under the weather, so the D-backs pulled him after 87 pitches.

Kelly kept runs off the board but had to grind through a 20-pitch first inning and 25-pitch third.

Gerardo Carrillo made his major league debut and provided two key innings to add some length, while Jonathan Loaisiga had to eat an inning. The D-backs had several relievers presumably down with two of their last three games going to extra innings, and starters have not gone deeper than five innings in the past four games.

Vargas let in a couple runs, but he saved another pitcher from coming in.

“We were definitely up against it,” Lovullo said. “We’re going on a long road trip. It was Brandyn Garcia or Vargas, and I decided to use Vargas to preserve Brandyn against a tough St. Louis team. He’ll be available tomorrow. If I threw him today, he’d be unavailable tomorrow. So that was a 50-50 ball I was juggling and very uncomfortable with, but it worked out, and we won a baseball game.”

Wednesday attendance

19,343

See you on deadline day

The Diamondbacks hit the road for 10 games, which will take them to four cities.

These are the final games they will play before the Aug. 3 trade deadline. The matchups will be particularly important because the D-backs will face three teams fighting alongside them for NL Wild Card positioning: Cardinals (1), Nationals (3) and Pirates (3).

“I think we’re getting back to what I know Torey calls D-backs baseball,” Kelly said. “It’s good to see the offense explode the way it did today. Hopefully we saved some runs for this road trip coming up.”

Brandon Pfaadt (4-1, 4.58 ERA) will pitch on Thursday in St. Louis, a makeup game from last month’s rain out. Right-hander Michael McGreevy (4-7, 2.92 ERA) will start for the Cardinals.

The game starts at 2:15 p.m. MST on ESPN 620 AM and the Arizona Sports app. 

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