D-Backs Blank Rangers, Move Into First Place

The Arizona Diamondbacks (60-49) moved into first place among NL West teams after their win over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday evening.

Tuesday was a great day all around for the Arizona Diamondbacks. During the day, they made two awesome pick-ups to improve their bullpen — Jake Diekman and Brad Ziegler — and then at night, they blanked the Texas Rangers 6-0.

With the win, as well as a loss by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the D-Backs are now the NL West’s first-place franchise. Now, they hold a half-game lead over the Dodgers and Colorado Rockies.

While there were many standouts from the victory, no one deserves more credit than starter Zack Godley. Through seven stellar innings, Godley allowed just one walk and two hits while striking out a season-high 10 batters. Lefty T.J McFarland came in to close the door with a scoreless eighth and ninth inning.

On the offensive side, the D-Backs banged out nine hits in total. Two players, Alex Avila and Jon Jay, had multi-hit games while Nick Ahmed drove in a team-best two runs.

A.J Pollock got the scoring started with a solo shot in the bottom of the first inning. The blast was the game’s only home run and his 15th on the year. Last year, he had 14 in nearly twice as many at-bats.

The Diamondbacks will have Wednesday off, returning to action on Thursday night at home against the San Francisco Giants. They’ll play a four-game set with the Giants.

Game Notes:

• Eduardo Escobar has his first hitless game since coming over from Minnesota.
• Pollock’s home run gave him 15 on the year, his most since 2015 when he hit 20.
• Godley struck out the first batter he faced in all of his seven innings of work. He’s the first pitcher since 1974 to do so.