Sedona Red Recap: Bats come alive as Diamondbacks blast Yankees to end skid

For the first four games of this homestand, an inexplicable lack of offense did the Arizona Diamondbacks in.

That wasn’t the case on Monday night.

Paul Goldschmidt and Jake Lamb homered, five different D-backs delivered multiple hits and Robbie Ray came through with seven strong innings as Arizona cruised to a 12-2 victory over the New York Yankees in front of 32,718 at Chase Field. To put that in perspective, the D-backs scored five more runs in this one than they did in their entire four-game series with the Giants over the weekend.

Goldschmidt got the scoring started, depositing his eighth home run of the season into the left field seats in the first inning. Then, with the score at 2-2 entering the bottom of the fifth, Lamb put one of his three hits into the pool area to trigger a five-run inning that blew the game wide open.

Meanwhile, Ray got the job done on the mound, scattering six hits and two runs over 7.0 innings for his second win of the 2016 campaign. He also struck out six, which included fanning pitcher Chad Green with the bases loaded to close out what could have been a damaging fourth inning.

Tonight’s contest marked the first meeting between the two 2001 World Series opponents at Chase Field since June 21-23, 2010. Prior to the game, the Diamondbacks held a ceremony to honor Hall of Famer Joe Garagiola Sr., which included commentary from a number of the sport’s biggest names.

Former New York manager and MLB’s current Chief Baseball Officer Joe Torre addressed the crowd from just in front of home plate, noting that the Yankees only needed one more run to cross that plate back in ’01.

THE GOOD

– After having his 11-game hitting streak snapped over the weekend, Jean Segura picked right back up where he left off by knocking in three runs with a double and a triple. He now has 56 hits on the year, including 17 multi-hit performances.

– Eight different Arizona players scored at least one run and six different batters picked up at least one RBI. In short, it was exactly the sort of game the lineup needed.

– Ray picked up the first RBI of his career, singling Nick Ahmed home in the fifth.

– Ahmed, who had managed just one multi-hit game since April 16, ripped a pair of doubles.

THE BAD

-Jacoby Ellsbury was awarded home when he was hit in the head by an Ahmed throw while trying to complete a triple to lead off the fifth.

-There really wasn’t much bad in this game from the Diamondbacks’ perspective. The worst part, as Goldschmidt pointed out after the game, is that they don’t get to carry any of these extra runs over into Tuesday’s contest.

STAT OF THE GAME

9: The number of starters in the Arizona lineup to pick up at least one hit on Monday.

HE SAID IT

“He lived 90 amazing years and – to use a baseball expression – he did not get cheated out of one at bat. Not one.” Joe Garagiola Jr., talking about his father to the crowd at Chase Field before the game.

NOTED

-Michael Bourn made his debut as a D-backs starter count. He hauled in a nice catch on a long fly ball to the center field wall off the bat of Aaron Hicks in the fourth, picked up his first hit in the seventh and ultimately reached base three times.

UP NEXT

These two clubs will square off for game two of the three-game series Tuesday night. Zack Greinke gets the ball for Arizona while New York will counter with Michael Pineda. First pitch is set for 6:40 p.m. MST with pregame coverage beginning at 6 p.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

Greinke (3-3) has been the subject of much scrutiny every time he takes the mound this season — the result of the $206.5 million contract he signed over the winter. While his outing in the opener was less than stellar (seven earned runs over just 4.0 innings), he’s been better in his seven starts since.

Greinke is still nowhere near the level he reached last year with the Dodgers, when he was downright dominant, but he has limited the opposition to two earned runs or less in four of his last six starts. He took a loss in his most recent appearance, surrendering four runs over 6.0 innings in a 4-2 loss to the Giants on May 12.

Pineda (1-4) has had an up-and-down campaign so far, and that’s putting it mildly. He’s sporting a 6.28 ERA and 1.60 WHIP despite allowing just two earned runs in four of those games. He’s given up a combined 19 runs over just 15.2 innings in the other three appearances. His most recent start falls into that second category, as he was touched up for six runs over 5.2 innings by the Royals on May 11.

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