Randal Grichuk smashes 200th career HR, D-backs tee off on Rangers’ Cody Bradford

Randal Grichuk hit his 200th career home run as the Arizona Diamondbacks jumped ahead with a three-run first inning in their 14-4 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday.

Arizona found contact against starter lefty Cody Bradford, who entered the game with a 3.05 ERA and 0.87 WHIP.

Lead-off man Ketel Marte lined a double to get things going before Corbin Carroll tripled to deep center to push the first run across the plate. Grichuk took the third pitch he saw over the left field wall for a 3-0 lead after the first inning.

It registered at 420 feet.

200 @MLB homers for @RGrich15! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/qTGxx9gLLH

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) September 11, 2024

Arizona’s lead reached 8-3 by the time both starting pitchers departed. Bradford was yanked after allowing eight earned runs and Diamondbacks starter Merrill Kelly was pulled in the fifth inning due to an undisclosed injury.

Grichuk has nine home runs this season but has hit five of them over the span of the outfielder’s last 26 at-bats dating back to Aug. 29.

The 33-year-old Grichuk spent four years each with the St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays to begin his career before jumping to Colorado (2022-23) and then the Los Angeles Angels last season.

He has been in and out of the D-backs’ lineup this year playing in a deep outfield group.

“He has been a very consistent player … I’m grateful for everything he’s given to this ballclub statistically, emotionally,” manager Torey Lovullo said of Grichuk before the game. “I know the easy thing for him would be to complain about playing time. He’s never done that.

“He is going out there full throttle and doing his best job for us, and I’ve asked a lot of him. Right, left, DH, I pinch hit for him, I throw him into games late as a pinch hitter, it’s a new role for him, and he’s just rolled right with it and accepted that.”

Grichuk hit the 10-year milestone as an MLB player on his birthday earlier in the season, an important mark not only for his legacy but for his post-playing life, as it comes with a fully vested pension plan.

D-backs keep hammering Cody Bradford after Randal Grichuk’s homer

Arizona tagged on two more runs in the second inning Wednesday when Eugenio Suarez hit a solo shot to lead it off.

Rookie catcher Adrian Del Castillo scored soon after via his double and RBI single by Marte, making it 5-0 before Texas got on the board. Del Castillo later hit a three-run home run in the fifth inning off Rangers reliever — and former Diamondback — Chase Anderson, marking his fourth of the year.

All of Arizona’s multi-base hits were smacked off Bradford’s pitches in the heart of the strike zone.

The Rangers’ Marcus Semien got a run back with a solo shot off D-backs starter Merrill Kelly in the top of the third inning, and Nathaniel Lowe singled in Wyatt Langford in the fourth frame. But Marte pushed the D-backs’ lead up to 8-2 with a three-run shot that scored Suarez and Geraldo Perdomo in the bottom of the inning.

Bradford allowed those eight earned runs and nine hits in 3.2 innings before he was pulled.

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