Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly throws to the San Francisco Giants line up in the first inning at Chase Field in Phoenix on Thu Jul 1, 2021 (AP News photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

PHOENIX—What a difference a start made for Merrill Kelly.

The Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher pitched seven strong innings and drove in a run on his first hit of the season in helping his team defeat the San Francisco Giants 5-3 in the first game of a weekend four-game series on Thursday evening at Chase Field.

San Francisco have lost a season worst four-games in a row and their lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers has shrunk to just a half game. Arizona snapped its own four-game losing streak and are just 3-9 after losing 17 games in a row.

Kelly gave up seven hits with three earned runs while striking out seven and did not allow a single walk on the evening.

Kelly, who came into the game with out having a hit, hit a bloop into left field for his first hit and RBI of the season to give the Diamondbacks a 2-1 in the second inning.

“I think he was just giving us different looks,” said Giants catcher Buster Posey about Kelly command tonight. “He didn’t really stay in one spot. He’s able to throw four pitches at different parts of the plate and that’s usually a recipe for success.”

The second inning for Giants starting pitcher Johnny Cueto is one he would like to forget. After coming off his best outing against the Oakland A’s last Friday, Cueto came into this start feeling under the weather. He finished the inning throwing 32 pitches and he looked fatigued and was not sharp on the mound.

“Yeah it was a long inning,” said Cueto if he had ran out of gas after the second inning. “I tried to have a lot of energy, I tried to install energy in the game but I just didn’t have it. I tried to go deep into the game as long as I could but again I just couldn’t do it.”

Cueto gutted out a five inning performance giving up all five runs on six hits, while striking out five batter and issued two walks.

Mike Yastrzemski drew first blood in the first inning when he hit a 418-foot home run to right field, his 11th of the season, to get San Francisco (50-30) on the board.

Arizona (23-60) responded with its two-out rally in the second. Back to back doubles to Josh Reddick and Josh VanMeter in the bottom of the second inning to even the score at one apiece before Kelly’s go ahead single. It was VanMeter’s 10th RBI on the season.

Wilmer Flores smashed a 429-foot two-run homer to left field after a one out single by Branden Crawford, his eighth of the season, in the fourth inning to give the Giants a brief 3-2 lead.

Once again the Diamondbacks regained the lead in the bottom half of the fourth and this time for good. Reddick hit a two-run homer that just cleared the fence in right fielder for his first home run in a Diamondback uniform to give Arizona a 4-3 lead.

Pavin Smith added an insurance run in the fifth inning for Arizona with his sixth home run of the season, a deep shot into the right field seats, to complete the game’s scoring.

Giants manager Gabe Kapler said there’s no need to hit the panic button right now despite his offense’s current slump.

“I don’t think we need a rally the troops kind of speech. We’re not that kind of team,” Kapler said.

Joakim Soria pitched an eventful, but scoreless ninth inning to preserve the win to earn his first save of the season.

GAME NOTES: Outfielder Mike Tauchman was placed on the 10-day IL list (retroactive to June 30th) with a right knee sprain. The Giants recalled outfielder Jaylin Davis as he returned from his rehab assignment and reinstated from the 60-day injured list.

Posey will be the starting catcher for the National League at the All-Star Game in Denver, Colorado on July 13th as he finished first in the fan voting. It will be his seventh of his career, giving him one more selection to the National League squad than Willie McCovey and Will Clark earned in their storied Giants tenures.

UP NEXT: The Giants and D-Backs continue their four-game series on Friday 7/2 at 6:40pm at Chase Field.