Pavin Smith homered, singled and drove in three runs and the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks rallied from an early three-run deficit to beat the Washington Nationals 10-5 on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series.
Josh Rojas, Gabriel Moreno and Emmanuel Rivera also had two hits apiece for the Diamondbacks, who have won seven of their last nine.
Jose Ruiz (2-1) earned the win with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief after starter Tommy Henry allowed five runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Stone Garrett hit a grand slam against his former team and Lane Thomas added a solo homer and a single for Washington, which has lost three straight.
Washington pitchers issued eight walks, hit two batters and committed a throwing error. Starter Jake Irvin allowed four runs in four innings. Erasmo Ramirez (2-3) gave up two runs in two-thirds of an inning to take the loss.
Ketel Marte singled with one out in the Arizona first. Christian Walker drew a two-out walk and Rivera lined a single to center, scoring Marte.
The Nationals answered after Thomas singled leading off the bottom half of the first. Joey Meneses walked with one out, Thomas stole third and Jeimer Candelario walked to load the bases. Garrett then golfed a 1-2 changeup into the visitors’ bullpen to make it 4-1.
In the fourth, Rojas reached on a bunt single and ended up on second after Irvin’s throwing error. He scored on a single by Moreno, who went to second on the throw home and scored on Smith’s single to make it 4-3.
The Diamondbacks took the lead in the fifth. Corbin Carroll and Walker were hit by pitches and Rivera walked to load the bases. Rojas hit a sacrifice fly, Moreno followed with an RBI single and Jake McCarthy added another sacrifice fly to give Arizona a 6-4 lead.
Thomas’ homer pulled the Nationals within 6-5; but, after an error and two walks loaded the bases in the sixth, Rojas smacked a two-run single to make it 8-5.
In the seventh, with Geraldo Perdomo on first via a walk, Smith homered to left-center to push the Nationals’ lead to 10-5.
–Field Level Media
