Tyler Locklear’s 1st home run of 2026 powers Diamondbacks to impressive win over Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals’ first three batters of the game reached base, and Arizona was down 2-0 before Brandon Pfaadt recorded an out. However, Pfaadt danced out of a bases-loaded jam to limit the damage to two runs, and the Diamondbacks’ offense picked him up in Thursday’s 10-6 win.

The D-backs’ offense did not scratch a run across until the fourth inning, when the bottom of the lineup provided a three-spot.

Notably, Cardinals’ starter Michael McGreevy had a 1.50 ERA through the first three innings and a 4.41 ERA from the fourth inning on entering the day.

Max Kepler led off with a walk, and Adrian Del Castillo lined a double to left field to allow a Tim Tawa sacrifice fly to get Arizona on the board. Two batters later, Tyler Locklear scraped his first home run of the year over the left field wall to give the D-backs a 3-2 lead, which they would never relinquish.

Corbin Carroll led off the fifth inning with a triple and Gabriel Moreno brought him in on a sacrifice fly to extend Arizona’s lead to 4-2.

The Diamondbacks had five hits, seven baserunners and four runs through five innings before the offense erupted late for nine hits and six runs across the final two frames.

Pfaadt continued his dominance

The afternoon didn’t start great for Pfaadt, but after he escaped the first inning with just two runs allowed, he powered through six innings.

The D-backs starter allowed two runs on four hits and a walk in the first frame before throwing five more shutout innings, allowing just three hits and a walk.

Pfaadt’s final line was six innings pitched, seven hits allowed, two walks, two runs and a strikeout. It was his first six-inning outing (and quality start) since rejoining the Diamondbacks.

Diamondbacks offense stays hot

The Diamondbacks have now won nine of their last 11 games and are averaging 7.3 runs during their last 10 games.

Locklear went 3-for-5 Thursday with a double in addition to his long ball. He’s now batting .385 (5-for-13) since his callup.

Del Castillo, Moreno and Vargas all joined Locklear with three hits apiece, and Nolan Arenado contributed two hits off the bench.

Vargas had a three-hit game Wednesday against the Athletics, which made Thursday the first time he had back-to-back multi-hit games since May 18-19 against San Francisco, and it’s the first time he’s had back-to-back three-hit games this season.

Moreno’s three-hit performance was his eighth multi-hit game in his last 14, and he has at least one hit in 13 of those. Arenado’s two-hit game extended his hit streak to six.

The Diamondbacks will now travel to Washington D.C. to face the Nationals for a weekend series starting Friday. Thursday was the start of a 10-game, four-city road trip that takes Arizona right up to the trade deadline.

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