Johnson’s homers beat Bucs

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Chris Johnson homered in the eighth and ninth innings Tuesday night, giving him five in eight games since being acquired in a trade, to rally the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 10-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Johnson’s homer in the eighth carried far over the fence in center field and capped a four-run rally against Jason Grilli (1-4) that put Arizona ahead 7-4. Pittsburgh had just taken a 4-3 lead with two runs in the seventh.

Miguel Montero doubled in a run in the ninth before Johnson hit a two-run homer off Chris Resop to seal the victory for Arizona, which had lost three straight.

Johnson was acquired July 27 in a trade with Houston, where had eight homers in 92 games.

The Pirates lost for the third time in four games.

Paul Goldschmidt, who doubled twice, and Stephen Drew both had three of the Diamondbacks’ 15 hits. Drew homered and drove in two runs.

Brad Ziegler (5-1), who faced one batter and induced an inning-ending double play in the seventh inning, got the win and J.J. Putz worked the ninth in a non-save situation.

Travis Snider had three hits for the Pirates and Andrew McCutchen, who leads the major leagues with a .372 batting average, had two hits and two RBIs. Rookie Starling Marte his hit third home run in 12 games since being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis and making his major-league debut June 26.

Grilli failed to retire any of the four batters he faced after being called on to hold a 4-3 lead that the Pirates took by scoring twice in the seventh inning. His ERA jumped to 2.66 from 1.77.

Goldschmidt lined a double to right field on the first pitch of the eighth inning , took third on Justin Upton’s bloop single to center and scored the tying run on Montero’s single to right.

Johnson then hit a 1-0 pitch to put Arizona ahead 7-4.

Marte hit a leadoff home run in the seventh inning off Takashi Saito to draw the Pirates even at 3-3. The Pirates then pulled in front on Neil Walker’s sacrifice fly.