CINCINNATI (AP) — Merrill Kelly allowed one hit over six innings and the Arizona Diamondbacks hit three homers to beat the Cincinnati Reds 7-0 on Wednesday night, snapping a four-game skid.
Christian Walker hit a two-run homer and Josh Rojas and Jordan Luplow added solo shots for the Diamondbacks, who stopped a 26-inning scoreless streak with a five-run eighth inning in Tuesday’s 14-8 loss to the Reds.
The game’s first pitch was delayed 1 hour, 40 minutes by rain.
One night after launching five home runs and piling up 16 hits, Cincinnati managed just a double and four singles against Kelly (5-3) and three relievers. Kelly walked three and struck out five while lasting longer than five innings for the first time in his last six starts.
“I felt the best I’ve felt in the last month,” Kelly said. “My command was a lot better than it has been. My mentality was to be aggressive. Knowing that I had more life in my fastball put that thought into my head.”
“Their pitcher did a nice job,” Reds manager David Bell said. “We weren’t able to get anything going. We weren’t able to square to ball up.”
Kelly got a boost from Alek Thomas, who leaped at the left-center field fence and robbed Joey Votto of a two-run homer to end the first inning. Cincinnati had scored in the first inning in the previous six games.
“Off the bat, I thought it was long gone,” Kelly said. “I thought there was no chance it was coming back. I was walking to the plate to get a new ball from (plate umpire) Angel (Hernandez) and I saw he was still watching the play, and I didn’t hear any cheering from the crowd. When I looked, he was just coming down. I wasn’t sure if he’d caught it or not. With a play like that, the momentum swings in your favor. It could’ve been a different ballgame.”
“That’s a situation…