D-Backs strike early in victory over Mets

Humberto Castellanos spun sliders and off-speed pitches mixed with fastballs, doing so with such effectiveness that the 24-year-old Diamondbacks right-hander was able to limit a good offensive team.

Castellanos threw 69 pitches over five innings and got his first win of the season in the Diamondbacks’ 5-2 win over the New York Mets Saturday night at Chase Field.

Arizona (6-9) had a season high 11 hits as a team and its bullpen shut out the Mets for four innings.

“It was definitely one of the key pitches tonight. It was working really well with the changeup against lefthanded batters,” Castellanos said in Spanish, asked about the effectiveness of his slider.

A well-executed bunt opened the door for a two-run second inning. Light-hitting No. 9 batter Geraldo Perdomo laid down a bunt that bounced where Mets pitcher Trevor Williams and third baseman Eduardo Escobar met going after the ball, and Perdomo beat Escobar’s throw to first base. What might have been intended to be a sacrifice instead was a single to load the bases, and after Daulton Varsho singled off the glove of the Mets’ Robinson Canó and Ketel Marte reached on a fielder’s choice to drive in runs, the Diamondbacks had a three-run lead they wouldn’t give up.

“It was just a good heady baseball play. ‘Gerry’ (Perdomo) is a very smart baseball player. He pays attention to a lot of the little things that are going on around him, and he dropped a really good bunt down,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.

Perdomo also tripled in the sixth and scored a key insurance run.

The game saw one player from each team hit with a batted ball and called out, Seth Beer for the Diamondbacks and Canó for the Mets, both instances that prevented potential run-scoring innings.

“I feel like that’s something that happens maybe once a year and it happened twice in the same game,” the Diamondbacks’ Christian Walker said. “Everybody was aware of how odd that was, but just another baseball thing.”

The Diamondbacks entered the game with a .180 team batting average, but racked up eight hits in the first three innings on Saturday.

Castellanos (1-0) allowed two runs on four hits with five strikeouts and a walk.