Christian Walker had three hits, including a solo home run, and drove in three runs to help the host Arizona Diamondbacks to a 12-5 win against the Chicago White Sox in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in Phoenix.
Jake McCarthy also drove in three runs, Joc Pederson had two RBIs and Corbin Carroll scored twice for Arizona, which has won three of four games.
Diamondbacks starter Jordan Montgomery (5-4) allowed one unearned run and four hits in five innings. He struck out seven and walked two.
White Sox starter Drew Thorpe (0-1) allowed eight runs (seven earned) and six hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked five and did not record a strikeout in his second MLB start.
Andrew Vaughn had three hits and three RBIs and Tommy Pham had three hits and an RBI for Chicago, which has lost six of eight.
Carroll walked on four pitches to start the game and Ketel Marte followed with a single to right to put runners on the corners. Pederson then grounded a double down the right-field line, driving in both runners for a 2-0 lead.
Pederson was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple, but Walker followed with a solo homer to make it 3-0,
Chicago’s Danny Mendick reached on an infield single to start the third inning, took second on Montgomery’s throwing error, stole third with one out and came home on Vaughn’s groundout to cut the lead to 3-1.
Pederson walked on four pitches to open the bottom of the third and Walker followed with a single to left to put runners on the corners. McCarthy grounded into a force play to bring Pederson home and extend the lead to 4-1.
Arizona blew the game open with six runs in the fourth.
The Diamondbacks loaded the bases with no outs and Marte hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-1.
After re-loading the bases, Walker hit a two-run double into the right-center field gap for a 7-1 lead. McCarthy followed with another sacrifice fly to make it 8-1 and two more runs came home in the inning on wild pitches for a 10-1 lead.
McCarthy had an RBI triple in the sixth inning before scoring on Randal Grichuk’s groundout to stretch the lead to 12-1.
Pham had an RBI single in the seventh to make it 12-2. Vaughn had a two-run single in the ninth to cut it to 12-4, and Oscar Colas later drove him in with a pinch-hit single to make it 12-5.
Carroll left the game with an undisclosed injury in the seventh inning.
–Field Level Media