Wade Miley is creating a difficult, but good problem for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The lefty is making a strong case for a spot in a rotation that was already a bit crowed and will be again when Daniel Hudson returns from the disabled list.
Miley lowered his season ERA to 1.29 with a strong outing that included taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning before he gave up his first and only hit of the day. He finished with 6.1 innings, one hit, one run (unearned), two walks and six strikeouts.
That one unearned ran snapped a 13-inning scoreless streak for Miley. This season he's been near perfect with the only bump coming against the red-hot Braves who got two hits off him when he replaced Josh Collmenter in the middle of the inning with two runners on board.
Offensively, the D-backs bats continued to make Marlins starter Josh Johnson wish he could reset the season.
Arizona got to Johnson with a couple of runs in the first five innings before blowing the game open with a five-run fifth. Aaron Hill led-off with a single, Miley bunted him over and then Willie Bloomquist drove him in to get things started.
The Marlins brought in Mike Dunn to replace Johnson, but that didn't work out so well. They walked Justin Upton to get to Jason Kubel who's been hitting the cover off the ball. Kubel drove in Upton and Bloomquist with a double and Cody Ranson added two more with another double after Miguel Montero walked.
When the inning was over, the D-backs were up 8-0 heading into the seventh inning. Unfortunately, the bullpen didn't show up in garbage time. Newly called up lefty Mike Zaguarski gave up three runs in the ninth which forced the D-backs to bring in Bryan Shaw to finish things off.
Another young lefty, Patrick Corbin, will take the mound and make his major league debut on Monday in place of Josh Collmenter who's been sent to the pen to work on his command. The final game of this four-game series in Miami starts at 9:40 a.m. but will not be televised.
Other notes via D-backs PR staff:
- D-backs' 5-run sixth inning matched a season high for the second time (April 22 vs. Braves - 2nd inning).
- CF Gerardo Parra has driven in a run in 5 of his last 7 games.
- 2B Aaron Hill has reached base safely in 17 straight games and 19 of 21 games overall.
- LF Jason Kubel has hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games.
- SS Willie Bloomquist has hit safely in 5 straight games.
- C Miguel Montero has hit safely in 5 straight games.