The Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> sent 19 men to the plate in the first two innings, scoring 10 runs in the process, as they routed the host Washington Nationals<\/a>, 11-6, Thursday night.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Down 3-0, the Nationals forcefully responded in the bottom of the first. The second batter \u2014 right fielder Juan Soto \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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. \u201cIt was twilight, and I didn\u2019t see it great,\u201d he said after the game. \u201c(I also think) that I didn\u2019t have a great feel for where the fence was as I ran back. That\u2019s definitely a play that should be made. I\u2019m going to continue working hard every day on making those plays.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t come up with it. The play, ruled a fielder\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s ERA into the stratosphere. When Merrill Kelly and Locastro followed with consecutive flies to right, the inning ended with Corbin\u2019s ERA sitting at 21.32 for the young season.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\nEarly Fireworks<\/h3>\n
Blowing It Open<\/h3>\n
Diamondbacks-Nationals Postgame Reflections<\/h3>\n