Ryan Roberts kept the grand slam theme going and Chris Young hit a pair of homers as the Arizona Diamondbacks forced a decisive fifth game in the National League Division Series with a 10-6 victory over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday.
The best-of-5 series heads back to Milwaukee for Game 5 on Friday.
One night after Paul Goldschmidt belted the first grand slam in Arizona postseason franchise history, Roberts matched him in the first inning on Wednesday. Roberts got a 2-1 hanging breaking ball from Randy Wolf (0-1) on the inside part of the plate and pulled it right down the left field line into the Diamondbacks' bullpen.
Young followed and belted a solo shot to deep left-center.
The Brewers battled back with single runs in the second and third before Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson elected to pinch hit for lefthander Joe Saunders in the bottom of the third. That move paid off with Collin Cowgill’s pinch-hit two-run single, making it 7-3 in favor of Arizona.
Micah Owings (1-0) came on and settled things down with two scoreless innings to earn the win.
Milwaukee loaded the bases in the sixth and Corey Hart drove a fly ball to the deep left-center. But Gerardo Parra caught it on the warning track for a sacrifice fly and the Diamondbacks escaped the jam.
Arizona put it away with Aaron Hill’s solo homer in the sixth and a two-run blast by Young in the seventh.
Milwaukee | Arizona | |
Randy Wolf | Player | Joe Saunders |
Loss | W/L | No Decision |
3.0 | IP | 3.0 |
2 | Strikeouts | 1 |
8 | Hits | 5 |
21.00 | ERA | 9.00 |
Milwaukee | Arizona | |
Yuniesky Betancourt | Player | Miguel Montero |
3 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
4 | TB | 4 |
.750 | Avg | .600 |