Philadelphia Phillies vs Arizona Diamondbacks Match Player Stats On Jun 23, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Jun 24, 2017

PHOENIX -- Mark Leiter Jr. kept Arizona off-balance by effectively mixing his pitches over six shutout innings in his first major league start, and Maikel Franco and Tommy Joseph homered in the late innings to help the last-place Philadelphia Phillies cool off the Diamondbacks in a 6-1 win on Friday night.

Arizona, coming off a 7-1 road trip, had won nine of 10 overall and 11 of 12 at Chase Field only to generate almost no offense against Leiter (1-0), whose first 12 career appearances came in relief.

The son of Mark Leiter and the nephew of Al Leiter -- both former major league pitchers -- the 26-year-old Leiter wasn't overpowering, with a fastball that topped out in the low 90s, but he constantly forced the Diamondbacks to chase cut fastballs and changeups down in the strike zone.

Leiter couldn't have pitched much better for a team that had won only two of its previous 15 games, striking out five and walking one before giving way to his bullpen after throwing 81 pitches, 51 for strikes.

The Phillies, winning for the second day in a row, didn't generate much offense themselves until the final two innings, but they turned Freddy Galvis' one-out triple in the first off starter Patrick Corbin into a run, then added a key insurance run when Franco hit his ninth homer of the season -- a line drive to right field off Jorge De La Rosa on a 3-0 pitch in the eighth.

Galvis' second homer in four games against Arizona this season proved important in the bottom off the inning when Daniel Descalso's first triple of the season scored Rey Fuentes, who began the inning with a single. But reliever Joaquin Benoit recovered to strand Descalso at third, getting David Peralta on a line drive to short and striking out Jake Lamb around a walk to Paul Goldschmidt.

Philadelphia, winning its fifth in a row at Chase Field, broke it open with a four-run ninth against T.J. McFarland that included Joseph's two-run homer, his 12th of the season.

The Diamondbacks had scored 26 runs in their previous two games, but didn't give Corbin (6-7) any support as he allowed only one run over 6 1/3 innings despite giving up eight hits.

Pat Neshek followed Leiter -- whose father was in the stands to see his son's starting debut -- with a scoreless seventh inning, and Hector Neris pitched the ninth in a non-save situation.

The Diamondbacks had a couple of chances early to get to Leiter, only to have the rookie pitch out of trouble.

The Phillies played without their hottest hitter of late, second baseman Howie Kendrick, who was scratched with left hamstring tightness less than an hour before game time. Kendrick, out more than a month earlier this season with an oblique injury, is hitting .358 since coming off the disabled list May 29.

NOTES: Phoenix Suns first-round draft pick Josh Jackson and Arizona Cardinals first-round pick Haason Reddick threw out ceremonial first pitches. ... RHP Randall Delgado (1-1) will make a spot start for Arizona on Sunday, in part to give RHP Taijuan Walker some extra rest. ... The D-backs placed RHP J.J. Hoover on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation and brought up RHP Rubby De La Rosa from Triple-A Reno, where he was 0-1 with a 2.35 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings. He was 4-5 for Arizona last season while being limited to 13 appearances by right elbow inflammation. ... A moment of silence was observed for former Arizona State football coach Frank Kush, who died Thursday. ... The Phillies played the second game of a 20-game stretch in which the starting time is different than the day before.