Zona’s Martinez ties MLB mark with 4-HR game
LOS ANGELES — J.D. Martinez tied a major league record by slugging four of Arizona’s six home runs, and the Diamondbacks routed the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers 13-0 on Monday night for their 11th straight victory.
Robbie Ray struck out a career high 14 while helping secondplace Arizona match the longest winning streak in the majors this season. The last time the D-backs won 11 in a row was June 1830, 2003.
The Dodgers are still baseball’s best team at 92-45, but they remain mired in a season-worst slump, having dropped four in a row and nine in 10 games.
Martinez is the 18th player in major league history to hit four homers in a game, and the 16th in the modern era.
Ray (12-5) scattered three hits over 7.2 innings. The left-hander improved to 7-1 on the road. His strikeouts were the most by a D-backs pitcher since Randy Johnson had 15 against the Dodgers on Aug. 31, 2004.
Ray became the first pitcher in major league history to have four games with 10 or more strikeouts against the Dodgers in a single season.
Arizona grabbed a 2-0 lead on Martinez’s two-run shot off Rich Hill (9-7) in the fourth. Hill retired nine of his first 10 batters, striking out seven of them, before Kristopher Negron singled leading off the inning. With one out, Martinez sent a 2-2 pitch into the left field pavilion.
The D-backs added four runs in the seventh against the Dodgers’ bullpen.
Martinez and Brandon Drury hit back-to-back homers off Pedro Baez to open the inning, making it 4-0. Jake Lamb and Adam Rosales singled before Baez was booed heavily as he walked off the field.
Chris Herrmann singled off Edward Paredes to load the bases. Ray reached on an infield single to second after the ball glanced off the glove of first baseman Cody Bellinger and squirted into the dirt, allowing Arizona to extend its lead to 6-0.
Martinez hit his third homer of the game off Josh Fields in the eighth. He belted a two-run shot off Wilmer Font in the ninth.
Hill allowed two runs and two hits in six innings, struck out nine and walked one.
—AP