By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Tuesday, April 7, 2015

PHOENIX, Arizona – Chip Hale’s first win as a major league manager didn’t come without some anxious moments, but his Arizona Diamondbacks outlasted San Francisco 7-6 Tuesday at Chase Field.

“I’ll save the lineup card, that’s for sure,” Hale, the former Oakland Athletics bench coach, said. “It’s exciting. We’re playing the World Champions and they have great players who know how to win. You just have to keep going until you get 27 outs.”

Jake Lamb, who drove in four of the seven D-Backs runs, said of his manager’s first win, “This was huge. Not only to get it for Chip, but it’s game two of a series and to get the win, this gives us a chance to take the series tomorrow.”

Arizona built its lead on a pair of three-run homers – David Peralta in the third inning and Lamb in the fifth – both off Giants starter and losing pitcher Ryan Vogelsong (0-1).

Vogelsong lasted 4 2/3 innings and surrendered all seven D-Backs runs. He gave up six hits, struck out five and walked four.

“Ryan was so close to having a pretty good game,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said. “Two three-run homers with two outs, he worked a lot of deep counts and that might have caught up with him. He had good stuff tonight, I thought. He made some good pitches before the second home run, but (Arizona hitters) found a way to foul them off.”

The Giants did some slugging of their own, with home runs by Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford. Posey was 3-for-3 with a walk, and Hector Sanchez added an RBI double. Sanchez, replaced Posey behind the plate when the All-Star catcher took over for the injured Brandon Belt at first base.

Though San Francisco scored six earned runs off Diamondbacks starter Rubby De La Rosa (1-0), the right-hander managed to still get the win. Arizona closer Addison Reed struck out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth for his first save of the season.

De La Rosa, acquired from Boston in the offseason, struck out five, walked two and surrendered eight hits. He worked out of jams in the fourth and fifth innings to keep Arizona in the game.

“I just tried to throw the ball over home plate and see what would happen,” De La Rosa said. “I had to make an adjustment to make better pitches, and that worked.”

“We did a good job of scoring runs tonight,” Bochy said. “We just couldn’t quite finish it off.”

With two out in the first inning, Angel Pagan doubled and Posey hammered a 399-foot home run to left, putting the Giants up 2-0.

Arizona cut their deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the second when Mark Trumbo tripled and scored on Lamb’s groundout to second. The Diamondbacks took a 4-2 lead in the third when, after a double by Aaron Hill and a walk to Paul Goldschmidt, Peralta sent a 419-foot drive deep into the right field seats for his first home run of the season.

San Francisco countered with single runs in the fourth and fifth to tie the game at 4-4. In the fourth, Pagan walked and scored on a single by Belt. One inning later, Vogelsong singled, moved to third on a double by Nori Aoki, and scored on Joe Panik’s sacrifide fly to left.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Diamondbacks snapped the tie with Lamb’s three-run homer – his first of the season. After Goldschmidt singled and Peralta walked, Lamb worked Vogelsong for a long pitch count before he homered to the left-center field seats, just to the left of the 413-foot sign.

“I was just trying to wait for a mistake and hit it,” Lamb said. “I was looking fastball away and I was proud of how I was fighting off pitches. (Vogelsong) kept throwing changeups down, I kept fouling them off, fouling them off. I got a fastball away, fouled that off. I told myself to zone down and look for something to hit to left-center. He hung the slider and I put a good swing on it.”

“(Lamb) saw eight or nine pitches. (Vogelsong) was facing his last hitter anyway,” Bochy said. “I was hoping that worst case, maybe a base hit. We had him covered for the next hitter, but he just made a mistake.”

Lamb has seven runs batted in over the first two games of the season. “I’ll take it!” he said, laughing. “I’m feeling comfortable at the plate right now and I’ll just try to keep it going.”

With Belt leaving the game in the fifth inning due to a groin injury, and Matt Cain headed to join Hunter Pence on the disabled list, Bochy can’t remember a start to a season like this one.

“It’s difficult to do,” Bochy said. “We’re going through a rash of them right now. Some things, you can’t explain. We’ll be making a decision soon on personnel, get something rolling and figure out what we’re going to do.”

GIANT JOTTINGS: RHP Chris Heston was recalled by the Giants from Triple-A Sacramento. Heston replaces RHP Matt Cain, who was placed on the disabled list (flexor tendon strain, right forearm) retroactive to April 4. The Giants aren’t sure how long Cain will be on the DL. … Belt’s strained groin injury was to be evaluated after the game. Bochy said Belt would undergo an MRI on Wednesday. … The announced attendance was 22,626.