Merrill Kelly combined with two relievers on a four-hitter, Lars Nootbaar broke a scoreless deadlock with a seventh-inning, pinch-hit grand slam and the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks went on to beat the San Francisco Giants 7-1 in the opener of a day-night double-header on Saturday afternoon.
The nightcap was scheduled to start a little more than three hours later, following a Giants ceremony to retire Jeff Kent’s number.
On an afternoon that began with Giants advisor to the president of baseball operations Ron Wotus getting ejected at the pregame exchange of lineup cards, Kelly and San Francisco rookie Matt Wilkinson matched zeroes until the Diamondbacks finally broke through in the seventh.
Promoted from Triple-A earlier in the day, Wilkinson (0-2) walked Gabriel Moreno and Geraldo Perdomo to open the seventh, then handed the ball to Ryan Walker, who got an out before walking Tim Tawa to load the bases.
Nootbaar, who hit the first pitch of Friday’s game for a home run, took the count to 2-2 this time before bombing a Walker pitch into the San Francisco Bay well over the wall in right-center field for a 4-0 lead.
Making his third big-league start, Wilkinson was charged with two of the runs. He limited the Diamondbacks to three hits in his six-plus innings, with two walks and four strikeouts.
Kelly (9-12) called it a day after seven shutout innings in which he allowed just a pair of singles and four walks. He struck out seven.
The Giants’ only run came off Taylor Clarke in the eighth on a two-out, RBI single by Jung Hoo Lee, scoring Rafael Devers, who had doubled.
Brandyn Garcia wrapped up Arizona’s seventh win in its last 10 games with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Arizona tacked on a single run in the eighth on an RBI single by Perdomo, then added two in the ninth on a run-scoring hit by Jordan Lawlar and a double-play grounder by Ildemaro Vargas.
Moreno finished with two hits and Tawa scored twice for the Diamondbacks, who temporarily moved within a half-game in their battle for the third and final wild-card playoff position in the National League.
Devers and Lee split the Giants’ four hits.
