By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Wednesday, September 9, 2015

PHOENIX, Arizona – If Arizona catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia keeps up his hot hitting, fans will soon start spelling his name correctly. The veteran backstop homered in his second consecutive game, providing the Diamondbacks with their margin of victory in a 2-1 win Wednesday over San Francisco.

Arizona took two out of three games of the series, adding to San Francisco’s disastrous road trip. The Giants (72-68) have lost nine of their last 12 road games, trail the Los Angeles Dodgers by 8 ½ games in the NL West and the Chicago Cubs by 9 in the NL Wild Card.

With one out in the Arizona fourth, David Peralta hit a ground-rule double over the bullpen fence in left. Saltalamacchia, the next batter, followed with a blast into the center field picnic area above the 413-foot marker, his seventh home run of the season.

The Giants cut their deficit to 2-1 in the sixth. Pinch-hitter Alejandro De Aza was hit by a pitch by D-Backs starter Zack Godley, moved to second on a walk to Angel Pagan and to third on Joe Panik’s groundout to second. During Matt Duffy’s at-bat, Arizona reliever Andrew Chafin threw a wild pitch, allowing De Aza to score.

San Francisco had a potential rally snuffed out early in the fifth inning, when Marlon Byrd, after running out an infield single, turned the wrong direction after overrunning the bag. Noticing Byrd’s casual left turn – indicating intent to advance to second – D-Backs second baseman Chris Owings alertly threw to first, where Byrd was tagged out.

The Giants loaded the bases in the seventh but failed to push across the equalizer. Byrd led off with a double, and with two out, Jackson Williams walked and Buster Posey was intentionally walked (and replaced by pinch-runner Mike Leake). But Pagan popped up to shallow left field to end the threat.

Brad Ziegler retired all five batters he faced in the eighth and ninth while earning his 25th save.

Godley (5-1) worked five-plus innings to get the win. He struck out five, walked one and scattered three hits. Randall Delgado, Daniel Hudson, Matt Reynolds and Ziegler held the Giants scoreless over the last three innings.

Chris Heston (11-10) gave up five hits, including Saltalamacchia’s home run, struck out five and walked two, but couldn’t get past the fifth inning.

The Giants return home for a nine-game homestand against San Diego, Cincinnati and Arizona. After taking Thursday off, San Francisco hosts the Padres Friday through Sunday. In order, the Giants’ probables for the San Diego series are Jake Peavy (5-6, 4.41), Madison Bumgarner (17-7, 3.05) and Mike Leake (9-8, 3.70).

GIANT JOTTINGS: RHP Tim Hudson, who homered in Tuesday’s game, is the third Giants pitcher to hit a home run at or after age 40. The first two were Clarence Mitchell (who homered for the New York Giants at 40 on Aug. 2, 1931, against the Boston Braves) and Steve Carlton (41 when he homered on July 21, 1986, at St. Louis). … The Giants haven’t won a road series since taking two of three at Atlanta Aug. 3-5. … Attendance at Chase Field was 20,576.

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