SAN FRANCISCO—Randal Grichuk hit a two-run home run in the first inning and a solo drive in the fifth to move within one of 300 for his career, and the Arizona Diamondbacks held off the San Francisco Giants 8–7 on Tuesday night for their seventh straight road win.
Grichuk had his 12th career multi-homer game and first in nearly two years, since connecting twice for Colorado on Sept. 6, 2022, against Milwaukee.
“He’s hot, and when he’s hot, he can carry a ballclub,” Diamondbacks Manager Torey Lovullo said.
Grichuk’s big bat helped Ryne Nelson (10–6) reach double-digit victories for the first time in his career in just the second win in six games overall for Arizona, which holds the second National League wild-card spot.
“It was a big win for us to kind of get back on that train we were riding for a little bit,” Nelson said.
Matt Chapman homered in the sixth and Mike Yastrzemski connected to spark a four-run eighth for the Giants on a night they drew a season-low crowd of 23,545 while losing their third straight game and fifth in the past six. San Francisco threatened against Ryan Thompson, who gave up RBI singles to Jerar Encarnacion and Patrick Bailey.
Justin Martinez relieved and surrendered a run-scoring single to Marco Luciano, freshly up from the minor leagues, before retiring Luis Matos on a called third strike. Martinez allowed Yastrzemski’s leadoff single in the ninth and then a one-out RBI double to Heliot Ramos before striking out Encarnacion to close it out for his eighth save—with the tying and go-ahead runs aboard.
Corbin Carroll singled to begin the ninth for a career-best 13-game hitting streak, then stole second and third before Christian Walker singled him home with a key insurance run.
“It felt great to help the team,” said Walker, who returned from the injured list after he missed more than a month with a strained left oblique muscle. He went 1 for 5 in the cleanup spot, and Walker will be carefully built up to playing regularly again.
“I talk to you guys about momentum and swings all the time, and it was clearly in their favor after the eighth inning,” Lovullo said. “I felt like our group knew how important it was to go out there and add on a run or two to stop the momentum, and they did a great job.”
Arizona loaded the bases with two outs in the third against Giants rookie left-hander Kyle Harrison (7–7), who was replaced following Adrian Del Castillo’s single. Tristan Beck entered and immediately surrendered Kevin Newman’s two-run single.
