D-backs Ambush Corbin Burnes, Merrill Kelly Cruises Through 7

The Diamondbacks jumped on Corbin Burnes for six runs in the top of the first inning and Merrill Kelly cruised through seven innings as the D-backs defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 9-1.

Box Score

Geraldo Perdomo led off the game by ripping a ground ball double down the line. Ketel Marte singled and Corbin Carroll walked to load the bases with nobody out. Christian Walker's broken bat single plated the first run and Lourdes Gurriel Jr followed with a line drive base hit to right to score two more. After a fielders choice by Emmanuel Rivera brought home one more run and Gabriel Moreno struck out, up stepped Alek Thomas in his first at bat back since being recalled from Triple-A Reno. On the third pitch he saw, a cutter down and in, Thomas lifted it deep into the second deck for a two-run homer. He later singled to right and scored a run for a triumphant return.

Alek Thomas makes a triumphant return to the big leagues. pic.twitter.com/hn4EmP8mIr
— Michael McDermott (@MichaelMcD8393) June 20, 2023

Thomas' flight to Chicago didn't arrive until 4:00 A.M. After a little bit of sleep he made the drive up to Milwaukee to join the club and was put into the lineup by Torey Lovullo. He and the rest of the lineup were clearly ready for Burnes right out of the gate.

"I think our game plan was to be aggressive. I think last time we faced him we gave him a lot of credit. He's a good pitcher, Cy Young Award winner. Today we just threw that out the window, and it's just another guy out there. That was our game plan."

Giving a pitcher like Merrill Kelly a lead like that is never a good idea. He started off by retiring the first six batters he faced, notching a couple of strikeouts. A leadoff walk and a two-out triple by Christian Yelich plated a run for Milwaukee in the third. But Kelly picked up from there to retire 11 of the next 13 batters. He gave up singles in the 5th and 7th, but both were followed by double plays.

Kelly mixed six different pitches, four seam, change up, cutter, cuverball, slider and sinker. It didn't matter what he threw, he threw them all for strikes. He threw 88 pitches, 61 for strikes. His final line was 7 IP, 3H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K. Kelly picked up his NL leading 9th win against just three losses and his ERA is down to 2.90.

The defense behind Kelly was solid as well. Thomas made a nice running catch on a ball to deep center off the bat of Raimel Tapia. Walker, who also doubled for his 8th multi-hit game this month, started a nifty 3-6-3 double play in the 7th. Rivera made a nice diving stop to record the last out of that inning for Kelly. The keystone combo of Perdomo and Marte turned another slick 6-4-3 with reliever Miguel Castro on the mound.

Corbin Carroll tacked on a run in the ninth inning with his 16th homer of the year, an opposite field shot to left center. Perdomo also walked twice and singled, getting on base four times out of the leadoff spot. Batting in the ninth spot, Jake McCarty singled twice, walked, and scored a run. The combination of McCarthy 9th and Perdomo 1st is looking like a lineup construction that Torey Lovullo will stick with for a while. In fact he said before the game he'd be giving Perdomo a long look at leadoff.

The D-backs got contributions from everyone in this game, but the night belonged to Thomas. He spoke after the game about what it took to get back to the majors. "Being there in Triple-A for a month I think really helped me. All I wanted to do is come back and help this team win. We're in first place right now, and the team is winning and having a lot of success and I really wanted to be a part of that."

"They gave me a task down in the minor leagues to find out what works best for me. What works best for me is simplifying things, not getting too overly aggressive, and managing the leg kick, and just being myself"

During Kelly's post game interview his face lit up into a big smile when asked about Thomas and the dugout reaction when he hit the homer. "Awesome, awesome. Obviously he was struggling before he got sent down and from what I understand he was raking in Triple-A. A.T. is a great kid, everybody loves him, and everybody loves to see him back. It wasn't a terrible pitch, it was down and in and he just dropped the head on it and everybody went nuts."

The D-backs and Brewers play game two of the series tomorrow night. Ryne Nelson pitches for Arizona and Colin Rea goes for Milwaukee. Game time is 5:10 P.M. Arizona time, 7:10 P.M. in Milwaukee.