Ryne Nelson retired the first 16 batters he faced, Randal Grichuk homered and the host Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Kansas City Royals 7-1 on Saturday.
The Diamondbacks snapped a three-game losing streak and evened the three-game series.
The Royals had won three of their last four.
Nelson (5-2) allowed a run and four hits over seven innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out five.
Freddy Fermin’s looping single to right center broke the spell of 16 consecutive batters retired with one out in the sixth. Jonathan India lined a single to center one out later to send Fermin to third. Bobby Witt Jr. followed with a run-scoring single to right to put the Royals on the board and make the score 4-1.
Nelson got help in preventing further damage in the inning when centerfielder Alek Thomas made a sliding catch coming in on Vinnie Pasquantino’s liner with two out and runners on first and third.
Kansas City starter and loser Michael Wacha (4-9) gave up four runs and four hits in four-plus innings with four walks and four strikeouts.
Arizona took a 2-0 lead in the third on RBI singles by Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez.
Lourdes Gurriel’s two-run double in the fifth doubled the lead to 4-0 and James McCann’s RBI double in the seventh made it 5-1.
Grichuk added his two-run homer in the seventh. The drive to right-centerfield was originally called an inside the park home run. But replays showed the ball actually went over the fence, hit a chair and ricocheted back onto the field. It was Grichuk’s fifth home run.
Diamondbacks right fielder and leadoff man Corbin Carroll returned after being out since June 18, when he suffered a chip fracture of his left wrist. He went hitless in five at-bats.
–Field Level Media
