PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks made hard contact and found holes early against the New York Mets in a 5-2 victory Saturday night at Chase Field.
The D-backs set a season-high with 11 hits and struck 11 balls 90 miles per hour or harder. The first 17 Arizona plate appearances resulted in eight hits, a walk and only one punchout, as the Diamondbacks led 4-0 after three innings.
Saturday was the type of offensive performance several players felt was due based on the contact they were making. Arizona entered the game last in MLB in batting average on balls in play, a sign it had not gotten many breaks.
“From our perspective, I feel like it was it was just a matter of time,” first baseman Christian Walker said postgame. “Call it a slow start, whatever you want to do, but this is who we thought we were going to be. Just a matter of repeating and executing every day. … It is good to see some production and definitely need to keep it going.”
Many of the early hits were sharp grounders or low line drives that found holes, including doubles by Walker and right fielder Pavin Smith. Manager Torey Lovullo described his team as one that will win with 1,000 cuts and not one big blow.
While Arizona led from wire to wire, it left seven runners on base over the first five innings and squandered opportunities to break the game open.
The Mets scored a pair of runs in the fifth to cut the deficit to 4-2, although starting pitcher Humberto Castellanos kept the damage minimal.
Castellanos’ final line included five innings, two earned runs and five strikeouts, continuing the chain of strong outings by Arizona starting pitchers. He did not allow a hit through three innings while finding success with his slider.
“He had some good secondary stuff,” Lovullo said. “He looked like he could get that slider, that he shorted up. He spread it out a little bit. He did a nice job of changing speeds, side to side and up and down as well.”
The bullpen took the D-backs to the finish line with four scoreless innings capped by Joe Mantiply’s first career save. The lefty has yet to allow a run this season in 6.2 frames.
The Diamondbacks got a run back in the sixth, as left fielder David Peralta hit a sacrifice fly following shortstop Geraldo Perdomo’s triple to left.
Perdomo was one of four D-backs to collect multiple hits along with center fielder Daulton Varsho, catcher Carson Kelly and Smith.
He’s at it.
pic.twitter.com/GcnkdJVaGU
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) April 24, 2022
“We’ve been having a lot of hard contact as as a team, and it’s just not finding the holes,” Varsho said. “Tonight was a good job for us, and hopefully we can do it tomorrow.”
UP NEXT
The D-backs and Mets will battle in a second straight Sunday rubber match after New York bested Arizona last weekend 5-0 in the series finale to win the set. The Diamondbacks are still seeking their first series victory of the season.
The action will begin at 1:10 p.m. from Chase Field on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.