PHOENIX \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Ildemaro Vargas hit a go-ahead, two-run triple in a decisive four-run seventh inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks rallied for a 5-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday to win the series and keep pace in the National League playoff race.<\/p>\n
The D-backs remain two games behind the San Diego Padres for the final NL wild-card spot.<\/p>\n
Trailing 3-1 in the seventh, Arizona loaded the bases with no outs against starter Andrew Abbott. Lars Nootbaar made it 3-2 with a fielder’s choice off reliever Luis Mey and then Vargas followed with his two-run triple that rolled all the way to the right-center field wall.<\/p>\n
Corbin Carroll’s sacrifice fly brought home Vargas and made it 5-3.<\/p>\n
Kevin Ginkel struck out Tyler Stephenson looking to end the game, stranding runners on first and second. It was his second save of the year.<\/p>\n
It was a tough ending for Abbott (6-9), who pitched well through the first six innings. He gave up four runs and seven hits and two walks, striking out six.<\/p>\n
The Reds jumped to a 3-0 lead in the third on Sal Stewart’s RBI single and Eugenio Suarez’s two-run single. Elly De La Cruz started the inning with a leadoff double into the left-field corner.<\/p>\n
The D-backs cut the deficit to 3-1 in the sixth on Gabriel Moreno’s sacrifice fly that brought home Carroll, who reached on a triple. His 16 triples this season are the most in the big leagues and his 59 career triples are the most among active MLB players.<\/p>\n
Arizona left-hander Mitch Bratt lasted just three innings for a second straight outing. The rookie gave up three runs and five hits and three walks while striking out three.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The D-backs send RHP Merrill Kelly (8-11, 5.37 ERA) on Monday to face Cubs RHP Kevin Gausman (6-11, 4.59).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Ildemaro Vargas hit a go-ahead, two-run triple in a decisive four-run seventh inning and the Arizona Diamondbacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[58195,16738,3979,64,63,10027,591,44,12293,91812,58194,85,39],"class_list":["post-866971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-app-sports","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cincinnati","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-ohio","tag-ohio-cincinnati-reds","tag-spectrum-news-staff","tag-sports","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}