Merrill Kelly appears to be turning corner as Diamondbacks salvage series tie with Padres

The Arizona Diamondbacks seemed to be playing to their recent form with early offensive struggles on Thursday night, but stacked three scoring innings and leaned on a stingy Merrill Kelly start to win 3-1 and split a series with the San Diego Padres.

Down 1-0 after three frames due to a Manny Machado home run, the D-backs (46-47) got on the board in the fourth thanks to wild pitch that nearly took Nolan Arenado’s head off. Arizona then added one each of the next two innings, as Geraldo Perdomo drove in Tommy Troy with a single in the fifth and Arenado dug out a home run in the sixth.

This home run is brought to you by Nolan Arenado. pic.twitter.com/0lLKt5JU4s

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) July 10, 2026

All three of the D-backs’ runs came with two outs.

Catcher Gabriel Moreno recorded at least one hit in every game at Petco Park, going 7-for-16 after a 1-for-4 performance on Thursday.

Paul Sewald notched his 21st save in 22 chances on just 10 pitches (nine strikes).

Corbin Carroll managed his second hit of the series (finished series 2-for-13), but his single-turned-double in the fourth was negated by a Padres challenge with a review showing Carroll briefly taking his foot off the base during a tag.

The right fielder is hitting .143 this month (4-for-28) to bring his season average down to .261.

How did Merrill Kelly look in final start before All-Star break?

Kelly got off to a scratchy start Thursday, needing 35 pitches to get through two innings, but quieted several jams en route to his best outing since tossing his first career complete game against the Colorado Rockies (May 15).

After conceding a solo shot to Machado on his first pitch of the second frame, Kelly produced three 1-2-3 innings while striking out five San Diego batters and only allowing two hits.

Kelly had a forgettable June (23 earned runs on 36 hits) and now enters the All-Star break giving up just three earned runs across his two July starts.

A telling at-bat was the first of the fifth, as Kelly delivered on his spoken desire to be more competitive by catching shortstop Xander Bogaerts looking for a strikeout on a 94-mph four-seam fastball.

Though he successfully worked around them, Kelly continues to have free pass problems, walking three on Thursday. He entered the game averaging 3.6 walks per nine innings, which is on pace for a career high.

His final line: seven innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, three walks and six strikeouts on 94 pitches.

NL Wild Card standings: Where do Diamondbacks sit?

1. Chicago Cubs (52-41) +0.5 games ahead
2. Philadelphia Phillies (52-42) —
3. Miami Marlins (52-42) —
4. St. Louis Cardinals (48-44) 3 games behind
5. Washington Nationals (48-46) 4
6. Pittsburgh Pirates (47-47) 5
7. San Diego Padres (46-47) 5.5
8. Arizona Diamondbacks (46-47) 5.5
9. Cincinnati Reds (42-50) 9

Next up: Dodgers

First-time All-Star Eduardo Rodriguez (2.25 ERA) gets the ball for Arizona and has the task of dueling Los Angeles’ Shohei Ohtani (1.79 ERA) to kick off a three-game series at the Dodgers on Friday.

First pitch of Diamondbacks-Dodgers is at 7:10 p.m. MST and you can catch all the action on 98.7 and the Arizona Sports app.

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