A steady output of scoring early on and and effectiveness of Wade Miley's left shoulder propelled the Diamondbacks to a 6-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies in their series finale from Chase Field in front of a crowd of 23, 069.
Wade Miley retired the first 13 batters he faced, as the left-hander carried a perfect game into the fifth inning on this way to his seventh victory of the season. Miley (7-2) went eight strong innings, allowing one run on three hits and striking out five Rockies.
"He's been a rock for us," said Kirk Gibson about Miley. "He's not afraid to pitch to contact and he makes quality pitches, he trusts his catcher, and he makes it easy on himself," said Gibson.
The only downer for Miley was that his team-high eight-game hitting streak ended tonight.
"I was just throwing strikes, I felt pretty good, I was just going after guys," said Miley. Miley only threw 102 pitches over eight innings including 71 for strikes.
"I feel like all of the starters are able to go as long in games as we need to go," said Miley. "We try to go as deep as we can and save the bullpen as much as possible."
Arizona only had to use two pitchers on Wednesday, compared to the five that Colorado used. David Hernandez relieved Miley in the ninth inning, walking a batter and getting two strikeouts in a scoreless ninth.
Miley got plenty of support early on as Arizona put up five runs in the first three innings. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt got the scoring started for the Diamondbacks when he doubled home Ryan Roberts in the first inning.
Rookie A.J. Pollack, who played in Triple-A last night for the Reno Aces, singled home Gerardo Parra with a two-out line drive to right field in the second inning.
The Diamondbacks broke the game open in the third inning when they put up three runs to extend the lead to 5-0. Goldschmidt, Aaron Hill and John McDonald all had RBI doubles in the third inning.
Goldy wasn't done there as the young first baseman deposited a pitch from Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino into the right field bleachers to lead off the seventh inning.
"I was just able to get a good pitch to hit both times," said Goldschmidt about his two doubles early in the game. "Obviously when you are hitting home runs and hitting the ball hard it is a good thing," said Goldschmidt.
Kirk Gibson is happy to see the Goldschmidt that had great success as a rookie in 2011.
"He's pretty locked in right now," said Gibson. "He''s got a good head on his shoulders and he's much more relaxed."
Goldschmidt finished the game 3-4 with three RBI's and two runs scored.
With their victory tonight, the Diamondbacks have now won four of their last five games and have won two series in a row for the first time since the middle of April.
Up next for Arizona is an off day tomorrow followed by a three game interleague set with the Oakland Athletics. All eyes will be on the Saturday matchup when Trevor Cahill faces Jared Parker.