DENVER, CO — Corbin Carroll homered on the second pitch of the game, Merrill Kelly tossed six solid innings and the Arizona Diamondbacks gave manager Torey Lovullo his 500th career victory with a 3-2 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
Lovullo, who is in his eighth season and is the longest-serving manager in franchise history, reached the milestone after Arizona had dropped five in a row.
“The players are the ones that win these games,” Lovullo said. “I’ve been so honored to be their manager for all these years, and 500 victories are amazing.
“This accomplishment is wonderful, but it’s not where we want to end up. It’s a we thing over a me thing.”
Randal Grichuk also went deep and Gabriel Moreno had four hits — including two doubles — to back another quality outing from Kelly. He has pitched at least five innings in 32 straight starts, the second-longest active streak in the majors behind Pittsburgh right-hander Mitch Keller (34).
Kelly (2-0) has also dominated the Rockies — at home and on the road. He is 3-0 in his last four starts at Coors Field and 4-0 in his past five outings overall against Colorado.
“It seemed right Merrill got the win,” Lovullo said. “He’s been here for a long time.”
Ryan Thompson got four outs and Kevin Ginkel worked a clean ninth inning for his first save of the season.
Kelly got quick run support when Carroll hit his first home run leading off the game and then Moreno doubled and scored on Christian Walker’s single.
The Rockies got one back in the bottom of the first when Ezequiel Tovar scored on Ryan McMahon’s groundout, but Grichuk homered leading off the second against his former team. It was his first of the season.
“It was just a matter of time for those guys,” Walker said of Carroll and Moreno getting big hits. “The beginning of the season is a tricky thing — you never start as good as you want, or you surprise yourself. With guys like Corbin and Gabby, it’s not a matter of if, it’s when.”
Colorado starter Cal Quantrill (0-2) settled in after that, allowing just four more hits in six innings. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter in his first home start for his new team.
“I’ve got to be better in the first inning,” Quantrill said. “First time pitching in Denver in a long time, kind of took a second to figure out what was going to work and what wasn’t.”
The Rockies added a run in the sixth on an RBI single by Elias Diaz, but Kelly worked out of further trouble by striking out Nolan Jones to end his night. The right-hander allowed two runs on six hits, walked three and struck out four.
“I would have liked to have limited the walks,” Kelly said. “A lot of three-ball counts that I don’t really enjoy. But all that really matters is the score.”
UP NEXT
The Diamondbacks will send LHP Tommy Henry (0-1, 7.00 ERA) to the mound against LHP Austin Gomber (0-0, 6.23) in a rematch of Colorado’s 9-4 win on March 30.
