Three infield singles in the top of the eighth inning turned into the game-winning run as the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Miami Marlins 7-6 Thursday afternoon in Miami. With the win, the Diamondbacks completed a four-game sweep of the Marlins.
After Cliff Pennington's bunt single, Paul Goldschmidt tapped the first of two slow rollers back to the box to load the bases. Following a line drive double play that cut down Jordan Pacheco at the plate, A.J. Pollock tapped his infield hit to score Pennington with the eventual game-winning run.
The Diamondbacks trailed 4-2 when they came to bat in the top of the sixth. They got single RBI's from Pacheco (sacrifice fly), Pennington (double), Aaron Hill (sacrifice fly), and Ender Inciarte (single) to take a 6-4 lead. Miami tied it in the bottom half on RBI singles from Marcell Ozuna and Martin Prado.
The Marlins scored three in the bottom of the first on two run-scoring singles from Giancarlo Stanton and Justin Bour and a run on a double-play groundout from Christian Yellich. Arizona got single runs in the first (Yasmani Tomas RBI double) and second (Inciarte RBI single) to get on the board.
Andrew Chafin (W: 2-0, 4.57 ERA) picked up the win in relief by ending the sixth and pitching the seventh inning. He totaled 1 1/3 perfect innings. Brad Ziegler (S: 1) struck out two of the three hitters he faced in the ninth to notch his first save of the season. Diamondbacks starter Archie Bradley pitched five innings, allowing four eraned runs on nine hits. He walked two and struck out four.
Sam Dyson (L: 2-1, 2.53) was the pitcher who served up the eighth-inning infield hits to suffer the loss. Mat Latos started for Miami and lasted 5 1/3 innings. He allowed six earned runs on seven hits while walking two and fanning seven. Latos saw his ERA rise to 6.12.
On Friday, the Diamondbacks return to the desert to host the Chicago Cubs for the weekend series while Miami welcomes the Baltimore Orioles to South Florida for an Interleague match-up.