Denver, CO – Patrick Corbin recorded yet another quality start and this time went the distance for the first time in his brief career as the Arizona Diamondbacks shut down the Colorado Rockies, 5-1, in an NL West battle at Coors Field.
Corbin (7-0) stayed perfect on the season and has thrown at least six innings and held the opposition to two or fewer runs in all nine of his outings. The 23-year-old lefty gave up just one run on three hits and one walk while racking up a career-high 10 strikeouts. His ERA dipped to 1.44.
"I was able to get ahead with my heater and strike them out with my slider," Corbin said. "I just kept them off balance."
Didi Gregorius, Eric Chavez and A.J. Pollock each had three hits for an Arizona attack that pounded out 16. Gregorius had two RBI, Chavez scored a run and knocked in another and Pollock came around twice in the victory, Arizona's fifth in six games.
Jon Garland (3-5) was knocked around for 11 hits and five runs in a six-inning start for the Rockies, who had won three in a row coming in.
Chavez led off the second inning with a triple off the center-field wall and scored when Miguel Montero beat out a potential inning-ending double-play grounder.
The D'backs added two more in the third as Paul Goldschmidt slapped a single to right field to knock in Gerardo Parra, then came around on Chavez's chopper through a drawn-in infield.
Gregorius hit an RBI double down the right-field line in the fourth and knocked in Pollock again two innings later with a base hit to center.
The Rockies came in averaging over five runs per game but only had three baserunners through the first seven innings.
Corbin was poised for a shutout before Nolan Arenado and Jordan Pacheco each doubled in the eighth inning, the latter's a pinch-hit two-bagger that plated the former to get the Rockies on the board.
With his pitch count at an efficient 85 heading to the ninth, Corbin stayed on the rubber and retired the side in order to cap his dominant performance.
"(Corbin) had real good command with his fastball and his slider was disappearing," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said.
Game Notes
Corbin has won five straight starts ... Randy Johnson is the only other left- hander in D'backs history to begin a season 7-0, having done so in 2000 ... Gregorius raised his average to .369 ... Chavez is hitting .515 (17-of-33) in his last 11 games ... The middle installment of this three-game series will see Arizona's Ian Kennedy starting on Tuesday opposite Jhoulys Chacin ... Game time: 2:32.
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