Field Level Media
Jun 28, 2019
Nick Ahmed and Carson Kelly hit home runs in support of left-hander Alex Young in his major league debut Thursday night, lifting the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 5-1 victory over the host San Francisco Giants in the opener of a four-game series.
The 25-year-old Young, a second-round pick by Arizona in 2015 out of Texas Christian, was promoted from Triple-A Reno earlier in the day, replacing right-hander Zack Godley in the Arizona starting rotation.
Young (1-0), who had a 6.09 ERA in 20 Triple-A games, limited the Giants to one run on three hits over five innings to pick up his first win. He walked one and struck out five.
The only run he allowed resulted from a Brandon Belt solo home run leading off the fourth inning. The homer, Belt's 10th of the season, tied the game at 1-1 at that point.
Ahmed's homer, his seventh of the year, led off the fifth inning and gave the Diamondbacks the lead for good at 2-1. It came off Giants right-hander Tyler Beede (1-3).
Kelly increased the Arizona advantage to 4-1 in the seventh when he followed a walk to Ahmed with his ninth homer of the season. The two-run shot came off Giants reliever Trevor Gott.
Beede was charged with two runs on four hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out three.
Playing the opener of a six-game trip, the Diamondbacks scored first off Beede in the fourth inning on a Ketel Marte walk, a David Peralta double and a Christian Walker infield out.
Yoshihisa Hirano, Andrew Chafin, Yoan Lopez and Greg Holland shut out the Giants without a hit over the final four innings in relief of Young.
The Diamondbacks gave Holland a four-run cushion with which to work in the ninth by adding a run in the top of the inning on a double by Kelly and an RBI single by Eduardo Escobar.
Kelly, Marte and Peralta collected two hits apiece for the Diamondbacks, who improved to 4-0 at San Francisco this season.
The visiting team has won eight of the 10 games in the season series so far.
In losing for the third time in four games on a seven-game homestand, the Giants finished with just three hits, including a double by Brandon Crawford.
The Diamondbacks out-hit the Giants 8-3.
--Field Level Media