Following up their fourth extra-inning win of the month, the Arizona Diamondbacks now shoot for back-to-back victories for the first time in nearly two weeks as they close out a three-game set against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.
Now an even 4-4 within the National League's West Division, the Diamondbacks picked up their second win in the last three outings overall on Tuesday night after Didi Gregorius scored on a wild pitch and Alfredo Marte followed in the top of the 11th inning to give the visitors a 6-4 triumph.
Paul Goldschmidt belted his fourth home run of the campaign and plated three for Arizona as he offset a pair of strikeouts. Patrick Corbin worked his way through 7 1/3 innings for the Diamondbacks, allowing two runs on six hits while striking out seven, but it was Brad Ziegler who picked up the win with one inning of action.
Matt Cain made the start for San Francisco and permitted four runs, three earned, on five hits and fanning six over as many innings. Saddled with the loss was Santiago Casilla, who is now 2-2 after giving up two runs in the final inning.
Trailing the entire game, the Giants, who tallied a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth, pushed the meeting to extra innings when Brandon Belt, who a day earlier hit the game-winning single in the series opener, delivered a two-run home run in the ninth to knot the score at 4-4. Scoring on the play was Hunter Pence, who finished up with three hits in five at-bats.
"I feel like I've seen the ball well in the past couple of days. That's helped me stay calm in those situations," Belt noted after his second game of clutch hitting.
Shooting for his fourth win in as many decisions this season, Madison Bumgarner heads to the hill for the Giants this afternoon. The left-hander won his first three starts of 2013 and turned in another solid effort last week when San Francisco took down San Diego by a 3-2 score.
In that outing Bumgarner failed to earn the decision, yet he still struck out a season-best 10 over six innings of work, allowing just two runs on four hits. For his career against Arizona, the hurler is an even 3-3 with a 3.91 ERA in eight appearances.
As for the Diamondbacks, they are handing the ball to Ian Kennedy, who is hoping to put an end to a two-game slide. The right-hander won his first start of the campaign against St. Louis back on April 1, but more recently he has bowed to both the Dodgers and Colorado.
Versus the Rockies last week, Kennedy gave up three runs on three hits and just as many walks, striking out six through six innings in a 3-1 road loss.
A first-round pick out of USC in 2006, Kennedy has a career mark of 6-2 with a 2.38 ERA in 13 games against the Giants.
Despite the loss last night, San Francisco is still second in the standings, having won an impressive nine of 11 games within the division.
In each of the two previous seasons these teams have split their annual meetings, 9-9.
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