Corbin Carroll on Thursday hit a two-out, two-run single in the ninth inning as the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Colorado Rockies 6-5 to tie the idle Los Angeles Dodgers for a share of the National League West lead.
Gabriel Moreno walked with one out against Pierce Johnson (0-2) and Ketel Marte doubled with two outs, moving Moreno to third. With first base open and Christian Walker on deck, the Rockies decided to pitch to Carroll, and he came through with a liner for his first career walk-off hit.
Carroll said he thinks it was the first game-ending hit of his life.
Photo: Joe Camporeale-USA Today
“I think so,” Carroll said. “There’s been opportunities, but I can’t remember any even through Little League.”
Carroll fell behind in the count, but lined a 1-1 pitch to left-center and Marte scored easily from second with the winning run.
“I was trying not to expand the zone,” Carroll said. “I didn’t do a very good job of that, but I got the job done.”
Arizona won their fifth straight to improve to 34-23 and match the Dodgers for the best record in the National League.
Two years ago, the Diamondbacks lost 111 games and took until Aug. 3 to win their 34th game. Carroll, at that time a top prospect, was injured and spent much of the summer at Chase Field watching the major league club.
Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said Carroll made good use of it, asking “advanced” questions about specific situations.
“He didn’t waste a year in his development,” Lovullo said. “He was preparing for that moment. He has incredible talent and a great gift in processing the right information.”
Rockies manager Bud Black considered walking lefty Carroll, a top candidate for Rookie of the Year honors with a .287 batting average, nine homers and 16 stolen bases, to load the bases and pitch to the right-handed Walker, who had three hits. Ultimately, he deferred to splits and level of experience.
“Pierce has been really good against left-handed hitters,” Black said. “You can look at it a lot of different ways. If you load the bases, you force Pierce to have to be in the strike zone. Overall, we felt good with Pierce versus the rookie.”
Ezequiel Tovar homered leading off the seventh against Kyle Nelson. Brenton Doyle, Harold Castro and Nolan Jones drove in the other runs for Colorado.
After Tovar homered to make it 4-2 in the seventh inning, Arizona got back within a run on Marte’s RBI double against Brad Hand, but Justin Lawrence relieved and retired Walker on a fly to left.
Elsewhere, the Padres mauled the Marlins 10-1, the Blue Jays beat the Brewers 3-1, the Mets mastered the Phillies 4-2, the Twins edged the Guardians 7-6, the Red Sox routed the Reds 8-2 and the Astros downed the Angels 5-2.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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