Diamondbacks Offense Breaks Out in Romp Over Reds

The Arizona Diamondbacks jumped on Cincinnati Reds All-Star starter Andrew Abbott in the first inning and never looked back on their way to an 10-1 victory Saturday night.

With their fourth win in a row the D-backs not only secured a series victory, but inched closer to .500 with a 64-66 record. The Reds dropped to 67-63. The Mets won, and are 69-60, so the D-backs remain 5.5 games back for the third NL Wild card spot.

Diamondbacks Offense Pounds on Andrew Abbott, Reds Bullpen

Abbott came into the game with an 8-3 record and 2.28 ERA, third best in the National League. He left the game with his ERA inflated all the way to 2.62 after giving up seven earned runs.

Corbin Carroll got things started with a two out double, stole second, and scored on Lourdes Gurriel's base hit. Doubles by Gabriel Moreno and Blaze Alexander followed, plating two more for a three-run first inning. Abbott had allowed just three total first inning runs all season long.

Geraldo Perdomo reached by error in the third, and Gurriel smashed a one out homer, his 18th of the year, upping the scored to 5-0. Gurriel now leads all of MLB in August RBI with 28 in just 21 games.

Perdomo smashed a two-run homer in the fourth inning, his 14th of the year. He also singled home a run in the eighth. His 84 RBI are the sixth most in the NL, and the most ever by a Diamondbacks shortstop, eclipsing Nick Ahmed's record of 82 set in 2019.

Blaze Alexander topped off the scoring with his fifth homer of the year. The two extra base hits, plus a single in the eighth inning bumped his OPS up to .760.

Combined with his suddenly stellar defense at third base, that's made him an extremely valuable player. Alexander is planting his stake in the ground, making a claim to third base for 2026.

Speaking to Todd Walsh and Mark Grace postgame, Alexander expressed the mood and energy around the club these past couple of days.

"You show up to the field, everyone's really happy. I was itching just to get back out in the field. I know we didn't get a walk-off tonight, but I'd rather do what we did tonight. The energy is really good in here, and we're rolling."

Diamondbacks Pitching Strategy Works Like a Charm

Torey Lovullo made a decision late last night to make a switch, having Jalen Beeks open the game as a starter. It worked perfectly, as he retired the Reds in order in the top of the first before handing things off to Nabil Crismatt.

Crismatt threw four scoreless innings, navigating around traffic in every inning. He had runners on third base in three of his four innings, and six base runners in total. But got out of the jam each time.

Jake Woodford came on in the sixth inning, and threw four innings, allowing just one run. Despite the lopside score, the official scorer credited him with a save. That makes him the 15th different reliever to record a save for the Diamondbacks this year, a Major League record.

Addressing that record Torey Lovullo said "There are no rules, there are no buttons, it's just where we're at in the season. Everybody knows that they have an opportunity to go out there and get big outs and that's what happened today. So we did everything we could on the mound and matched up the best way we could."

Arizona will go for the series sweep on Sunday behind Zac Gallen, who will face Brady Singer. First pitch is 1:10 p.m. MST