PHOENIX (AP) — Albert Almora Jr. tripled home the go-ahead run in the 12th after Tyler Mahle pitched nine brilliant innings, and the Cincinnati Reds outlasted the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-3 on Tuesday night.
Mahle pitched three-hit ball and became the first pitcher since 1900 to not win while throwing nine or more scoreless innings on the road with at least 12 strikeouts and no walks, according to STATS. He threw a career-high 119 pitches.
“Seeing him being able to get through the ninth was a lot of fun,” Reds manager David Bell said. “I wanted to make sure he was OK, he looked over and gave me a little nod, I’ll probably remember that look for the rest of my career.”
Arizona’s Zach Davies allowed six hits in seven scoreless innings, walked none and struck out seven.
Cincinnati has won three in a row for the first time since taking four straight from May 25-28. Mahle said catcher Aramis Garcia deserves a lot of the credit for his performance.
“If you go back and watch the sequences that he was calling, they were the greatest I’ve ever seen, by far,” Mahle said. “That was the greatest game I think I’ve ever seen called. Keeping them off balance, going in, out, up, down, that was really cool. ”
Arizona has lost eight of 11.
“I think (Mahle) was changing speeds early, attacking the zone, hitting the edges,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. “And then it was just a very explosive (fastball) to finish our hitters off.”
On a night that was scoreless through nine innings, the Reds took a 4-3 lead on Almora’s triple in the 12th off Sean Poppen (1-1). Jonathan India brought home Almora with a single.
Joel Kuhnel needed just five pitches in a perfect 12th for his first big league save.
“What a game, I can’t even remember what…