Paul Goldschmidt finds his groove as D-backs blast Reds: By the numbers
Aug 22, 2015, 8:27 PM | Updated: 8:59 pm
Arizona Diamondbacks Paul Goldschmidt, left, gets congratulated by Jarrod Saltalamacchia after scoring against the Cincinnati Reds in the fifth inning of their baseball game in Cincinnati, Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)
(AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)
It’d been 23 whole games since the Diamondbacks’ first baseman had made #Goldschmidthappen.
Then the spell ended.
Paul Goldschmidt hit his first home run since July 27 with a two-run jack on Saturday that gave Arizona a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Arizona would go on to win 11-7.
Perhaps it was a relief for Goldy.
August hasn’t been his month, after all.
Heading into the game Saturday, Goldschmidt was batting .208 during August — and was still somehow second in MLB in average, on-base percentage and OPS.
Whatever that first-inning bomb was, the seal appeared to be undone.
Goldschmidt recorded two singles in his next two at-bats, then connected for his second home run on the evening, a two-run shot coming in the seventh inning that gave Arizona an 8-5 lead.
That infectious hitting appeared to rub off on all the right players. Ender Inciarte added three RBI in the lead-off spot, and second slot batter A.J. Pollock recorded three hits. Chris Owings, eighth in the batting order, put together a three-hit evening on a night that was big for the D-backs.
Arizona (61-61) moved to .500 and has a chance to sweep the Reds on Sunday, then return home with a bit of confidence to perhaps make a statement in a four-game series against the best team in baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals.
It doesn’t hurt that the Diamondbacks’ best player may have gotten himself out of a funk.
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Arizona pitcher Randall Delgado, making his first start since September 2014, wasn’t expected to reach a pitch-count in the 90s or even the 80s considering he hadn’t been stretched out as a member of the bullpen.
Unfortunately, it hardly came to that. Delgado was capped at 65 pitches after allowing four earned runs, six hits and two walks in 2.1 innings.
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Reliever Andrew Chafin has recorded 19 straight scoreless appearances to tie the D-backs’ team record for a rookie. Joe Paterson did the same in 2011.
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For the third game in a row, Diamondbacks center fielder A.J. Pollock haunted the Reds by recording three or more hits and a stolen base.
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Zack Godley recorded his first career MLB hit in the fourth inning, loading the bases with an out and setting up a sacrifice out by Inciarte that broke a 4-4 tie.
Godley, who had started with great success before being recalled into the bullpen, earned the win. He picked up for Delgado and went 3.2 innings, allowing one earned run while striking out three.
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Inciarte led off the game with a home run — off the first pitch — for the first time in his career.
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