Eduardo Rodriguez delivers quality start, Paul Sewald bounces back in Diamondbacks win

Eduardo Rodriguez delivered again, and Paul Sewald bounced back with a scoreless ninth inning to secure the Arizona Diamondbacks’ 10th win in their last 12 games with a 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals Friday.

The Diamondbacks got on the board early with two runs in the second inning. Max Kepler led off with a double before Tyler Locklear worked a walk and Adrian Del Castillo moved them both over with a sacrifice bunt.

Tim Tawa hit an infield single to get the D-backs’ first run, and Ketel Marte legged out a fielder’s choice to allow the second run to come across. Marte was originally called out for a double play to end the inning, and an Arizona challenge extended the inning.

The Nationals answered in the fourth as CJ Abrams led off with an infield single, and Dylan Crews launched his eighth home run of the year to knot the game at two apiece.

Despite having runners on base often, neither team scored again until the Diamondbacks scored the game-winning run on a Gabriel Moreno sacrifice fly in the seventh inning.

Juan Morillo, Kevin Ginkel and Sewald worked a perfect three innings after Arizona took its 3-2 lead to close out another huge win for the D-backs.

Arizona had at least one runner on base in six of the nine frames Friday. The Diamondbacks out-hit the Nationals 8-7 and drew six walks.

Moreno had another multi-hit game, his ninth in the last 16 games, and Tawa extended his hit streak to five games, which includes three multi-hit games.

Eduardo Rodriguez worked around trouble

Rodriguez allowed six hits and three walks Friday but limited the damage to a couple of earned runs. He delivered his seventh quality start in his last eight games, powering through six innings on 98 pitches.

The D-backs’ All-Star was coming off his worst outing of the season, giving up five runs across 2.2 innings against St. Louis.

He bounced back Friday, and despite working around a baserunner in five of his six innings, gave Arizona the quality outing it needed.

The Diamondbacks will look to take the series on Saturday as Mitch Bratt (5.06 ERA) will face the Nationals’ Foster Griffin (2.26 ERA).

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