Josh Bell hit two home runs, one from each side of the plate, in his first game with Arizona. Ketel Marte also hit two home runs, and the Diamondbacks won 9-8 against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night after almost losing a five-run lead.
Bell, who joined the Diamondbacks on Tuesday from the Miami Marlins for cash, hit the last of Arizona’s three consecutive home runs in the first inning. He then tied the game at 7 with a two-out hit in the seventh inning.
His second home run was off a 102.9 mph sinker from Aroldis Chapman, traveling 370 feet to right field. This was the fastest pitch hit for a home run since tracking began in 2008.
“Everything he throws seems like it’s 120,” Bell said. “Happy to put the barrel on it. … He tried to get me to swing and miss at the sinker, which is what I’ve been doing virtually my entire career against him. But happy to get the barrel there.”
Geraldo Perdomo, after hitting a ball off the inside of his right knee, drove a pitch from Colin Holderman into the gap in right-center for a go-ahead double in the eighth inning.
“Never, never. We’re never going to give up,” Perdomo said after Arizona’s fourth consecutive win and eighth in nine games.
Marte then hit his second home run of the game and his 26th of the season in the ninth inning off a cutter from Dennis Santana. Justin Martínez struck out three batters with one walk in the eighth inning to get the win.
“They’re fighters,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “They had every reason to feel sorry for themselves. They didn’t. They had every reason to shut down and they didn’t. They believed they were going to win this game even when things were looking very, very desperate.”
In the ninth inning, Oneil Cruz led off for Pittsburgh with a single, his fifth hit, and scored on Rowdy Tellez’s one-out RBI single. Ryan Thompson then got Joey Bart and Ke’Bryan Hayes to ground out for his second save.
In the sixth inning, Cruz’s RBI single put Pittsburgh in front 7-6, despite being down 5-0 in the first inning. Andrew McCutchen scored on the slow grounder, which was initially ruled out by second baseman Marte but later changed to safe after a challenge.
“It just feels good to have a 5-for-5 game,” Cruz said. “But the most important thing is you learn from your mistakes. And today, I was able to bounce back.” Cruz had been 0 for 4 with three strikeouts and three errors against Houston on Wednesday.
McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds hit RBI singles before Cruz in a four-run sixth inning. The Diamondbacks scored in their first four at-bats against Luis Ortiz, who allowed six runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Corbin Carroll, the leadoff batter, tripled down the right-field line and then scored when a relay throw from Cruz got past Hayes at third base.
Marte hit his first home run next. Joc Pederson then hit a slider from Ortiz 430 feet to right field, over the wall and into the Allegheny River. Bell followed with a home run to right-center on the first pitch he saw as a Diamondback. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. later scored on a groundout by Alek Thomas.
“Challenging first inning and was in the middle of the plate the whole inning,” said Pirates manager Derek Shelton about Ortiz. “To come back and give us five-plus (innings) was huge for us with where we’re at.”
Joey Bart hit an RBI single in the fourth inning, and McCutchen and Reynolds hit consecutive two-out doubles in the fifth. Cruz brought it to 5-3 with a single off Brandon Pfaadt, who allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings.
Thomas had an RBI single for Arizona in the sixth inning.
