Pen loses it in the 9th
Walkoff single by Pollock with two outs in ninth evens the series
PHOENIX — They walked to begin the game and walked to set up its apex.
Then A.J. Pollock walked the whole thing off.
The Arizona Diamondbacks cleanup-hitting center fielder laced Brad Peacock’s first pitch, a slider down in the zone, for a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Astros 4-3 in a Saturday game during which their pitching staff issued eight walks.
Scoreless in his last 12 appearances preceding this one, Chris Devenski was saddled with the loss. He ceded the last two walks of the night, against Christopher Owings and Paul Goldschmidt with two outs in the ninth inning preceding Pollock’s at-bat.
To Owings and Goldschmidt, Devenski threw 12 pitches. Nine were offspeed, either sliders or changeups. Both walked on full-count changeups — Devenski’s best pitch — bringing Pollock to the plate.
“I didn’t execute those pitches to the best of my ability,” Devenski said. “In that situation, that’s something I can learn from. Maybe not stray away from the fastball there, because I have a good fastball, too.”
Manager A.J. Hinch summoned Peacock, who expected an “ambush” from the .298 hitting outfielder. Pollock offered at the first pitch. It sawed his bat in half. Still, it found outfield grass and sent a jubilant team spilling onto the field.
“It was away, could have been a little better,” Peacock said. “But I had to stay in the zone because there are bases loaded. He’s a great hitter, put the bat on the ball and found a hole.”
To the surprise of Devenski, Jeff Mathis placed a pristine bunt up the thirdbase line to begin the ninth inning of a tie game. Alex Bregman, playing at normal infield depth, could not charge the baseball quickly enough. Neither could Devenski. It trickled just fair.
Devenski did retreat to his left and suavely stab a second bunt from Deven Marrero, cutting down Jarrod Dyson — the pinch runner who replaced Mathis — at second base for the first out. Marrero stole second. Max Stassi bobbled the glove-to-hand transition to ensure there was no throw. Marrero is the 14th man to steal against the Astros in 17 tries.
He scored the winning run.
“Just created a couple extra baserunners,” Hinch said, “and they got the one big hit.”
The free bases began early.
Astros starter Charlie Morton threw 35 pitches in the first inning. Fourteen were strikes. Command of his four-seam fastball to either side of the plate disappeared and the Diamondbacks refused to swing at his secondary pitches. The first three men to face him walked.
Pollock chased in the first walk, David Peralta, with a sacrifice fly. Another walk sandwiched between two groundouts ended the inning, allowing Morton to escape with only one run on his line.
“He just couldn’t seem to get in sync or find his delivery and find his slot where he was going to produce a lot of strikes,” Hinch said. “He had to battle himself and grind all night to just get through his outing. Given how it started, it could have been a lot worse at the beginning.”
Cognizant his four-seam fastball was missing, Morton switched to more sinking two-seam fastballs to induce groundouts.
“I probably could have utilized it a little bit better, maybe challenge guys, be a little more aggressive in the zone with it instead of being so fine and trying to be fine,” Morton said.
Such a laborious first inning sets an ominous tone. Peralta massacred a mislocated four-seam fastball for a two-out solo home run in the second. Arizona starting pitcher Zack Greinke led off the fifth with a double. Peralta chased him home with a single, the second of three consecutive men to reach against Morton in his final inning.
Against Greinke, the Astros stranded five and mustered five hits. He offered a hanging first-pitch changeup to George Springer in the fifth. Springer deposited it onto a walkway just above the first section of the left field bleachers 422 feet away, a seismic solo home run that whittled his team’s deficit to one run.
It was the only one they’d score against Greinke. He left in the sixth with the lead only to see it vanish when Brian McCann and Derek Fisher blistered eighth-inning RBI doubles to tie the score.
“We gave ourselves a chance,” Hinch said. “I think that’s all you can ask based on how we started the game and how the game was going and to put something together against their bullpen, which has been pretty good all year, was good. Just wasn’t good enough.”