Despite Ian Kennedy's struggles during 2012, he has seemingly turned a new leaf. During the Diamondbacks' 6-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Monday night, Kennedy notched his first career triple. All the while, he pitched through eight innings for his second consecutive outing.
"I haven't hit the ball very good at all this year and I just saw the ball and tried to make contact, to make solid contact. It felt good to actually do something in that situation," Kennedy said of his big hit in the fourth inning.
Paul Goldschmidt was just glad that his teammate could pick up his slack after a weird play that he misread held him on base instead of scoring him.
"Obviously, Ian did a good job right there," Goldschmidt said while laughing. "It's nice to have a mistake and somebody else picks you up. He's a good hitter. It's funny how he hasn't had that many hits this year. But he always has good at-bats, so hopefully he can continue to find some holes like that."
The hit was huge, as it helped put three more runs on the board for Arizona, which were necessary by the end of the game. The funny thing is, his pitching was just as extraordinary as his base clearing triple. Kennedy's line was 8.0 innings pitched, 2 earned runs and seven strikeouts. When asked about his game from the mound, Kennedy found it all somewhat amusing.
"The pitching gets overshadowed when you get a triple like that. It's good, I just wanted to go out there and do what we (Miguel Montero and himself) did last time, try to pound the zone. And once again, kind of like last year and the year before, we worked well together. It felt good just to go out there and pound the zone like that."
Kennedy noted that his fastball command has improved greatly over the past couple of weeks, which has really lent itself to much of his success. His manager, Kirk Gibson, praised his pitching line as well.
"He threw the ball good, he didn't walk anybody. He gave us eight innings which was important as we were trying to get our bullpen rested. He struck seven guys out and in the eighth inning he had to dig a little bit and he did a great job... It's just good to see him throw back to back games with consistency."
It was a special night for Ian in every aspect of the game, which was something that third base coach Matt Williams recognized. Kennedy told the media that Williams made a funny point to him. "He said, 'when you hit in more runs than you gave up it's a good day.'"
Let's hope Kennedy can continue his roll and have a 'good day' more often.
Get more Diamondbacks coverage over at AZ Snakepit.
For the latest AZ sports, follow us on Twitter @SBNArizona and "Like" us on Facebook.