Diamondbacks Lose Pitcher's Duel Turned Slugfest to Atlanta

Austin Riley hit a three-run go ahead homer against Miguel Castro in the 8th inning that turned out to be the game winner in a 7-5 Diamondbacks loss to the Braves. 

Watching this game early, one never would have thought it would turn into a slugfest late in the game.  Zac Gallen was perfect through the the first 5.1 innings, striking out four. That was broken up by a solo homer from Orlando Arcia giving the Braves a 1-0 lead.

Strider was equally spectacular. Through the first six innings he struck out 13 without walking a batter, giving up just two hits. One of those hits was a Ketel Marte triple to lead off the fourth, but Strider struck out Corbin Carroll, Christian Walker and Dominic Canzone in order to strand Marte at third. He struck out the side in the fifth inning as well, to record six straight K's to that point. 

Following the Arcia homer in the bottom of the 6th, the game completely changed. Strider walked Carroll, and hit Walker with a pitch. Up stepped Dominic Canzone, who turned on a 96 MPH fastball up and in, launching it for a three-run homer. It was Canzone's first career homer.  Immediately after Emmanuel Rivera tagged Strider for a solo homer and just like that Arizona had a 4-1 lead and Strider was out of the game.

Gallen came back out for the 7th inning and gave up a triple to Riley and then a two-run homer to Matt Olson, bringing the Braves within one run.  Gallen got the next three outs and left the game in line for the win against this tough Braves lineup against a dominant starter. His final line was more than fine. 7 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 2 HR.  One point of note however is that through his first 12 games Gallen had given up just two homers, both coming in his second start of the year in San Diego. Over his last nine starts however he's given up 10 homers, and had only one homerless start. 

The D-backs still had a lead heading to 8th inning and Corbin Carroll helped pad it with his 19th homer of the year.  Castro came in to pitch the bottom half of the inning, and gave up a one-out double to Michael Harris and two-out walk to Ozzie Albies bringing up the red hot Riley.  Castro got ahead of Riley 0-2, but after a waste pitch he grooved a 1-2 slider right over the middle of the plate that Riley drilled for the game winning homer.  

Looking somewhat shell-shocked afterwards, manager Torey Lovullo said of Riley's at bat  "I'm still trying to unravel it. We just didn't execute, that's the bottom line. It was four consecutive pitches of the same speed and the same shape to a really good hitter"

Kyle Nelson came in and gave up a solo shot to Olson, his second homer of the game, giving the Braves the final 7-5 margin. The D-backs got two runners on against closer Raisel Iglesias who they beat up on Monday, but this time couldn't push across any runs. 

So after five-six innings of a terrific and entertaining pitcher's duel the Braves connected for four homers from 6th inning on, and the D-backs had three long balls in the 7th and 8th combined. The Braves bullpen was better today however, as the D-backs relievers continue to struggle in high leverage close games.  With the loss the D-backs fail to sweep but still won the series 2-1 against the best team in baseball, outscoring them 26-23. It was a great series on the heels of getting swept by the Blue Jays and the D-backs should be proud of how they battled.