Joe Saunders’ pitching helps Arizona Diamondbacks defeat San Diego Padres 6-1 – MLB Update
Arizona Diamondbacks’ starter, Joe Saunders had an impressive day with pitching as he pitched nine innings with an ERA of 3.63 and allowed only one earned run in the Diamondbacks’ 6-1 victory over the San Diego Padres at Petco Park, San Diego on July 26.
In the first two innings, the batters got out without any run contribution on the score-board. At the top of the first, Willie Bloomquist singled off left-field but Justin Upton flied out to right-field, Chris Young popped out to short-stop and Miguel Montero
grounded out to short-stop position.
The Padres’ batters also got out as Cameron Maybin was grounded out to third base and Chase Headley got out to second base. Jesus Guzman drove a single-run shot towards left-field but Chris Denorfia popped out to first base and Orlando Hudson grounded out
to second base on his sluggish shot.
Diamondbacks posted their initial two runs at the bottom of the third inning to get a 2-0 lead. Kelly Johnson tripled to deep right-centre and Willie Bloomquist scored a single run. Johnson put the second run for the Diamondbacks when Upton hit a sacrifice
fly to centre-field. Fourth and fifth inning again went without any run on the score-board.
Saunders permitted just one run on six hits with one walk and struck-out four batters on his 99 pitches. Diamondbacks’ manager, Kirk Gibson commented on Saunders and said, “Joe was great. Kind of hoping he'd get a shutout. He threw a real good changeup and
throwing all his pitches in all the counts. It was what we needed.”
Diamondbacks got a 4-0 lead in the sixth inning. Justin Upton hit a one-run homer (417 feet) towards left-field and Young added one run while Ryan Roberts popped out to second base. Montero advanced to third base on the throwing error of the Padres’ second
baseman, Orlando Hudson.
In the seventh inning, Bloomquist contributed a single run on the drive of Johnson to centre-field and gave the Diamondbacks a 5-0 lead. Both teams put an individual one run on their score-card to move it to 6-1 during the ninth inning. Guzman homered (415
feet) towards centre-field to cut the Padres’ deficit.
As a result, the Diamondbacks led off the three-game series 1-0 played at San Diego.
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