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Ready for a shocker? The Arizona Diamondbacks often-pitiful bullpen actually played decent in the D-Backs 8-7 win over the San Francisco Giants Thursday night.
The performance by the D-Backs’ starter, Rodrigo Lopez, could’ve used a little work, though.
Lopez allowed six runs and 10 hits in five innings for the D-Backs.
During his sub-par performance, Lopez gave up two homers, while only striking out one and walking two. But, shockingly, the D-Backs bullpen bailed Lopez out and, for the second game in a row, the team’s recently dormant bats woke up.
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After giving up four runs in the sixth inning, it was clear Lopez was out of gas, so manager A.J. Hinch called on reliever Carlos Rosa, who gave up another run in the Giants five-run sixth inning.
Rosa got out of the inning and that was the last time the Giants got a hit.
D-Backs relievers Esmerling Vasquez, Aaron Heillman, and Chad Qualls were lights-out in the last two innings of the game, giving up no hits, striking out four, and only walking one.
The D-Backs trailed 7-5 after Lopez’s meltdown in the sixth but the bats went to work in the seventh when doubles by Mark Reynolds and Chris Young each scored a run, tying the game.
The game-winner, however, was one of the ballsier displays of base-running we’ve seen in a while.
With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth, and Conor Jackson on third base, Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt bounced a pitch short of the plate.
The ball didn’t get far from catcher Eli Whiteside, but Jackson — much to the surprise of everyone — broke for home and scored.
“I didn’t think there was any chance he was going, and I look up and he’s breaking,” D-Backs first baseman Adam LaRoche said after the game. “He just had a great read on it. He was obviously expecting it.”
The Giants came up short in the ninth, and the Diamondbacks went on to win 8-7.
The D-Backs host the Toronto Blue Jays tonight in the first of a three-game series with he Jays.
The game will broadcast on Fox Sports Arizona and KTAR. For more info on the D-Backs, click here.
