The sell out crowd (announced) at Chase Field were treated to an old fashion butt-whooping as the Arizona Diamondbacks laid the lumber to the Cincinnati Reds. It's hard to say what was more impressive though, the offensive explosion from the plate or Ian Kennedy's brilliant pitching performance.
Kennedy took the ball and went to work early with a strike out, ground out and fly out to open the game. From there he got even better. The now-bearded Kennedy went eight full innings with nine punch outs and just one walk. He worked himself out of trouble in the second with a double-play and escaped a Joey Votto leadoff double by striking out the next two batters and inducing a fly ball.
The only run Ian gave up came in the third inning and even that took a sac bunt and a sac fly to push the runner across. Kennedy matched a career-high with his 8.0 innings pitched. It's the fifth time in his career he's hit that mark.
The offensive was led by Miguel Montero's three hits and walk in his four plate appearances. Willie Bloomquist added his own two hits to match the D-backs' catcher for a six-game hitting streak. Justin Upton provided the power with a home run and two RBI and Kelley Johnson broke the game apart in the eighth with a three-run blast of his own.
All around great performance from the D-backs who played near perfect baseball in every aspect of the game.
The D-backs improve to 3-3 on the season while the Reds are now 5-2.
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