Carroll has a Great Night to Support Gallen's Gem

Torey Lovullo kept insisting "the storm is coming" for Corbin Carroll. The 2023 National League Rookie of the Year had been struggling all season. But there were signs he was coming out of it over the last week, albeit in a two steps forward, one step back manner. Lovullo was so confident that he moved Carroll back up to the top of the order.

Carroll rewarded his manager's faith by taking a giant leap forward in Monday night's 6-2 victory over the Reds in Cincinnati. He drove in the first five runs the Diamondbacks scored with an RBI fielder's choice, a single up the middle and then a three-run opposite field homer in the 7th to blow the game open. The five RBI were a career high. The homer was his second of the year and first since April 9th.

Much like Lovullo, anyone watching closely could sense that Carroll was on the verge of breaking out. Over his previous six games he was batting 6-22, .273 and had several hard hit balls that went for outs to deep centerfield.

Several nights ago Carroll talked about allowing his swing to get too flat. That, combined with teams constantly attacking him up and in with fastballs led to a lot of weak contact, popups, and more recently strikeouts. He's clearly made the adjustment however, and should be well on his way to recovery this season.

Lovullo couldn't have imagined that Carroll would drive in five runs in the game. "I probably thought something spectacular was about to happen, but five RBI's wasn't on my bingo card. But I know that he was the right guy in the right spot."

Ever the humble teammate, Carroll said that it wasn't necessarily the time for him to get back up to the top of the lineup. "Jake [McCarthy] had been doing a great job up there, so I didn't feel like I needed to be back up there. But great to get the job done a couple times."

Not to be overlooked, Zac Gallen pitched six innings of one-hit shutout baseball. He walked three batters, as he might have been knocking off some rust after having not piched since April 26th. The only hit was a weak flare into left field. He retired 15 of the last 17 batters faced, his record improved to 4-2 and his ERA dropped to 2.84.

Gallen had come out of his previous start with a hamstring spasm. After some starts and stops it was finally decided to take advantage of the off days and just skip his turn in the rotation. That strategy payed off in a big way for the Diamondbacks.

Lovullo opted to clip Gallen at just 79 pitches after six innings with the D-backs leading 2-0 at the time. It worked out perfectly however as the D-backs scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning. In addition to Carroll's homer, Ketel Marte went back-to-back with a line shot to centerfield

The Reds scored their two runs on solo homers, one by Jonathan India against Bryce Jarvis who pitched the bottom of the seventh. The second came against Paul Sewald by Tyler Stephenson, a deep shot to centerfield. Sewald struck out the last batter of the inning in his first regular season action of 2024. More importantly, the Diamondbacks have their closer back and a key piece to the bullpen.

It was the first time the D-backs won the opening game of a series since opening day against the Rockies. Their record improves to 16-20. Game two of the series is Wednesday at 3:40 P.M. Jordan Montgomery will start for Arizona, and Graham Ashcraft will go for Cincinnati.