Duke tames Diamondbacks in Pirates’ 6-3 victory

Associated Press

Phoenix

Aki Iwamura and Jeff Clement homered off Arizona ace Dan Haren and Zach Duke limited the Diamondbacks to four hits in seven innings in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 6-3 victory Saturday night.

Duke threw six scoreless inning before Arizona’s Mark Reynolds hit a monster two-run homer some 476 feet onto the patio in front of the Friday Front Row Sport’s Grill in left field, the seventh-longest home run at Chase Field.

Duke (2-0), whose start was moved up a day so he could face Haren, only struck out two and walked two but baffled Arizona’s batters into groundouts and pop outs.

Counting the last four innings of his opening day victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, the left-hander threw 10 straight scoreless innings before Reynolds emphatically ended the streak.

Haren (1-1) was off his game from the start, giving up five runs in the first four innings, capped by Iwamura’s two-run homer in the fourth.

Earlier in the fourth, Ronny Cedeno doubled over the head of left fielder Conor Jackson to bring in a run. Clement hit a leadoff homer in the second.

Octavio Dotel pitched a scoreless ninth for his first save in his first opportunity.

The Diamondbacks had the bases loaded and no outs in the eight but came away with just one run on Tony Abreu’s sacrifice fly. Reliever Brendan Donnelly struck out Justin Upton and left-hander Javier Lopez fanned Adam Laroche to end the inning.

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Chris Young stayed calm at the plate and propelled Arizona to a big night on offense.

Young hit a grand slam for his second homer in two games and matched a career high with five RBIs, leading the Diamondbacks to a 9-1 win.

Young’s second career slam highlighted a six-run third inning for Arizona, which improved to 3-1 and equaled its best start set in 2000.

Adam LaRoche broke an 0-for-13 slump with a two-run single in the third, and the Diamondbacks reloaded the bases against Charlie Morton (0-1) when Mark Reynolds was hit on the left hand with a pitch.