By MATT PIKE
The Arizona Diamondbacks offense exploded for nine unanswered runs and was to much to solve for St. Louis Cardinals starter Sonny Gray as the Redbirds fell to the Diamondbacks 10-1 on Saturday afternoon at Chase Field.
Arizona started the scoring right away in the first inning with three runs as Geraldo Perdomo drove in Corbin Carroll with a single, after Carroll led off the inning with a triple. Perdomo would be out in the next at bat when Lourdes Gurriel Jr grounded into a double play, but after Josh Naylor reached first thanks to catchers interference, Eugenio Suárez hit his 32nd home run of the season to drive in Naylor and himself.
The lead extended in the second as Alek Thomas scored on an RBI single by Blaze Alexander, after Thomas's lead off double. Perdomo drove in another run with a single as he brough Alexander home for the second run of the inning. Suárez's second home run of the game added to the lead in the third inning, putting the Diamondbacks up 6-0 after three innings.
Another three runs scored in the fourth inning, the first of the runs coming on Carroll's second triple of the game, driving in Alexander who led off the inning with a single. Carroll came home to score in the very next at bat as Perdomo drove in his third run of the game with another RBI single, and Perdomo later scored on a double by Adrian Del Castillo, pushing the Arizona lead to 9-0.
Alec Burleson's 12th home run of the season broke up the shutout in the sixth inning for the lone run by the Cardinals. Arizona added their final run in the bottom of the eighth, again courtesy of Perdomo, this time though on a groundout as Alexander scored.
Gray fell to 9-4 on the season taking the loss pitching 3 1/3 innings and giving up nine runs, eight earned, on 11 hits while striking out five. At the plate, Masyn Winn was 3-for-4 on the day. Burleson was 1-for-4 with the home run and an RBI.
St. Louis and Arizona wrap up their series tomorrow. Miles Mikolas (5-6, 4.94 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Merrill Kelly (8-5, 3.34 ERA) for the Diamondbacks. First pitch is at 3:10pm, coverage will be joined around 3 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.