Diamondbacks 11, Nationals 6
The Arizona Diamondbacks sent 19 men to the plate in the first two innings, scoring 10 runs in the process, as they routed the host Washington Nationals, 11-6, Thursday night.
Carson Kelly and Eduardo Escobar hit back-to-back home runs in the top of the first, and rookie Andrew Young hit his first career grand slam in the second to lead the onslaught. Pitcher Merrill Kelly, after a rough first inning, settled down to pitch six innings en route to his first win of the season.
Early Fireworks
The first inning saw the Diamondbacks plate four while batting around against struggling Nationals starter Patrick Corbin. As mentioned before, Carson Kelly and Escobar set the tone with their back-to-back one-out home runs. Two batters later, Nick Ahmed drew a two-out walk and stole second. After Pavin Smith walked, Wyatt Mathisen singled Ahmed home. Corbin hit Young with a pitch, loading the bases for Merrill Kelly, who grounded to short to end the frame.
Down 3-0, the Nationals forcefully responded in the bottom of the first. The second batter — right fielder Juan Soto — hit a shallow liner to left for a single. Young, playing left field, had a tough time tracking the ball. After it dropped, it ricocheted off his glove and to his left. The fielding error allowed Soto to reach second.
Josh Bell came up next and hit a deep fly to left. Young, who has spent his entire professional career as an infielder, got a bad read, breaking in first. “It was twilight, and I didn’t see it great,” he said after the game. “(I also think) that I didn’t have a great feel for where the fence was as I ran back. That’s definitely a play that should be made. I’m going to continue working hard every day on making those plays.” This allowed the ball to land untouched on the warning track and bounce into the Diamondbacks bullpen. The ground-rule double brought Soto home. Josh Harrison followed with an RBI single to shallow right, making the score 3-2. Third baseman Starlin Castro came up next and drove a 1-2 fastball into the seats in deep right-center, giving the Nationals a 4-3 lead.
Blowing It Open
The Diamondbacks continued their abuse of Corbin, a former D-Back, in the second. A single by Locastro, walk by Carson Kelly, and single by Escobar loaded the bases for third baseman Asdrubal Cabrera, playing his first game in Washington since leaving the team after the 2020 season. He struck out, bringing up Ahmed. A grounder to second threatened to be an inning-ending double play, but Harrison couldn’t come up with it. The play, ruled a fielder’s choice and error on the second baseman, drove in Locastro and tied the game. Corbin then walked right fielder Pavin Smith and drilled first baseman Wyatt Mathisen, bringing in two more runs.
That brought up Young, who made up for his fielding miscues with a line drive into the Nationals bullpen in right field. The grand slam made the score 10-3 and ran Patrick Corbin’s ERA into the stratosphere. When Merrill Kelly and Locastro followed with consecutive flies to right, the inning ended with Corbin’s ERA sitting at 21.32 for the young season.
A solo home run by Harrison in the bottom of the sixth and sacrifice fly by Bell in the bottom of the seventh narrowed the Nationals deficit to 10-6. However, Smith pushed the lead back to five with a solo home run in the eighth, his first of the season. Yoan Lopez, Anthony Swarzak, and Stefan Crichton combined to pitch scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth to cement the 11-6 victory.
Diamondbacks-Nationals Postgame Reflections
Carson Kelly’s 2-for-4 performance ran his batting average to .440 (11-for-25). This was the first time in his major league career that he started a game as the second hitter — something he said he enjoyed. It did not change his approach at the plate. “I’ve got a good approach for number two or number eight,” he said after the game. “I stuck to the same game plan.”
He credited a philosophy change with helping his hot start. This season he has focused on “letting the bad days go and not wearing them so much. I usually wear a lot of stuff from the games off the field, and it would continue to compound. Those days — I hope — are behind me. I’m going to continue to take every day as it is and control what I can control. There are a lot of things in this game that you can’t control. I’ve found a really good system that works for me. (It allows) me to get over the bad times, enjoy the good times, but stay neutral and stay in the middle — stay on the rails.”
The two teams play again Friday evening at 7:05 Eastern/4:05 Arizona Time. Taylor Widener (1-0, 2.45 ERA) will try to make it two straight for the Diamondbacks (5-8). Facing him for the Nationals (3-7) will be veteran and three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (0-1, 3.75 ERA).
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
Players Mentioned:
Carson Kelly, Eduardo Escobar, Andrew Young, Merrill Kelly, Patrick Corbin, Nick Ahmed, Pavin Smith, Wyatt Mathisen, Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Josh Harrison, Starlin Castro, Asdrubal Cabrera, Yoan Lopez, Anthony Swarzak, Stefan Crichton, Taylor Widener, Max Scherzer
