By two percentage points
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NL West.
Losing six of seven at home will do that.
Eric Lauer limited Arizona to a run over five-plus innings, Austin Hedges homered for the first time since April 10 and the San Diego Padres opened a
four-game series in the desert with a 6-3 victory over the slumping Diamondbacks
on Thursday night.
The Diamondbacks fell to 1-6 in what will be a 10-game homestand and dropped into a virtual tie with the idle Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the NL
West. Arizona had been alone in first since June 8.
”We know that we are in a pennant race, if you want to call it that right now at the halfway point of the season,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. ”I
think we enjoy that part of the game. We know it is going to be a dogfight for
the rest of the year.”
Wil Myers drove in two runs with a triple and single, and Carlos Asuaje reached base four times – a triple, RBI single and two walks – for the
last-place Padres, winners for only the fourth time in 17 games.
”Offensively, I think Carlos Asuaje is probably the story of the day for us,” San Diego manager Andy Green said.
Shelby Miller (0-3) was better in his third start coming off Tommy John surgery
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Jack Jersey , but still got the loss, allowing five runs – three earned –
and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked two.
”I feel good,” Miller said. ”I think today the command was a little bit better. I would have liked to go out there and finish the sixth, put up a zero
out there and get out of the game. Have us in a little better situation, 2-1
instead of 5-1, leaving that inning but we kind of beat ourselves that inning a
little bit.”
Arizona’s Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer off Matt Strahm in the eighth.
Lauer, a 23-year-old left-hander, gave up seven hits – mostly to soft contact – walked two and hit a batter, but only one of those baserunners managed to
score in his first win in four starts.
Brad Hand gave up an infield single
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Ngakoue Jersey , then struck out the next three in the ninth for his 24th
save in 28 opportunities.
Miller, who had allowed 11 runs and 15 hits in 8 2/3 innings during his first two starts back from the surgery, got off to a rocky start in the first inning
when the second batter, Asuaje, tripled to deep center and scored on Myers’
single.
But the Arizona right-hander settled down, blanking the Padres for three innings before Hedges’ line shot into the left-field seats put San Diego up 2-1
in the fifth. Hedges missed 41 games with right elbow tendinitis before being
reinstated on June 24.
An error by usually sure-handed shortstop Nick Ahmed led to two unearned runs in San Diego’s three-run sixth. Asuaje led off with an 11-pitch walk and scored
when Myers tripled to deep right-center.
Ahmed muffed Eric Hosmer’s hard one-bouncer to allow Myers to score. Freddy Galvis‘ two-out single off reliever Andrew Chafin brought home Hosmer and the
Padres led 5-1.
BIG PITCH
With runners at first and third and two outs in the fifth, Lauer struck out Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch that Green never had seen the pitcher throw: a
cutter.
”It’s fun to watch a kid throw a pitch that you’ve never seen him throw before,” Green said. ”I haven’t seen the 90 mph cutter out of him before. If I
haven’t seen it, Goldschmidt hasn’t seen
it
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Lauer said he has been working on the cutter as his slider evolved and was ”amped up” when he threw it to Goldschmidt.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Diamondbacks: OF Steven Souza Jr. (right pectoral strain) was activated from the 10-day DL and OF Jarrod Dyson was placed on the DL with a strained right
groin. Souza started in right field and went 0 for 3 at the plate with a walk in
just his 15th game of the season. Dyson was injured in Arizona’s loss to St.
Louis Wednesday night.
UP NEXT
Padres LHP Joey Lucchesi (4-3, 3.26 ERA) makes his fourth start since coming off the disabled list (right hip strain) and the Diamondbacks counter with RHP
Zack Godley (9-6, 5.07) in the second game of the four-game series.
—
Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone has some tips on how to beat the New England Patriots.
And not all of them are from Tom Coughlin.
Marrone received a folder Thursday filled with notes from first-graders at The Bolles School in Jacksonville.
The folder read, ”Dear Jags, Want to beat the Patriots? Here’s how: Advice from your (hash)1 fans in Bolles First Grade.”
Marrone held it up during his news conference and said, ”I’ve got to get through this. This is from the Bolles first grade and this has the answers that
maybe I’m looking for, maybe how we can stop the Patriots.”
He later added, ”We’re just taking as much advice as we can because we need it.”
The five-time Super Bowl champion Patriots (14-3) will host the Jaguars (12-6) in the AFC championship game Sunday.
Marrone jokes that it’s ”hard to believe how so many people have an opinion on how to beat the New England Patriots and no one’s really done that.”
—
