SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 03: Ryne Nelson #19 of the Arizona Diamondbacks pitches in the bottom of the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on September 03, 2024 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
Arizona Diamondbacks starter Ryne Nelson delivered a fifth straight quality start in an 8-7 win against the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday, giving the club a much-needed excellent start in a rotation that has scuffled of late.
The Diamondbacks led 7-2 after Nelson’s outing, as he struck out nine batters through 6.2 innings with two earned runs. Nelson has pitched through six innings in nine of his last 11 starts, and Arizona has a 9-2 record.
“He’s emerging as one of the guys we look forward to every fifth day. He’s grown and he’s learned so much over the course of 20-plus starts he’s given us this year,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “He’s locked in right now, he’s throwing the ball extremely well.”
Arizona’s offense gave him early support, plating three runs in the first inning and seven runs through five frames. Randal Grichuk hit a pair of home runs to drive in three runs, while Geraldo Perdomo and Kevin Newman each collected RBI knocks.
Nelson did not start the game perfectly, as a lead-off walk to Mike Yastrzemski and double from Tyler Fitzgerald put him in a bind. But the right-hander honed it in to retire the next 11 batters. The lead-off walk to Yastrzemski — on a sacrifice fly from Heliot Ramos — accounted for the only Giants run through five innings.
Nelson produced swing-and-miss with the high heater, although the Giants really struggled to piece up his changeup and slider. This changeup to Grant McCray in particular was just filthy:
He threw more sliders than usual (19% compared to an average of 8.3%), including two to finish strikeouts. Nelson — whether it be the slider, changeup or cutter — finding a secondary arsenal to work off the fastball makes a dramatic difference.
“I think it’s been coming along really well,” Nelson said of the slider. “I think that’s been an emphasis probably the last year-and-a-half, and I think it just fit into the game plan. There’s a couple guys it matched up well with, and I think it’s been feeling pretty good. So we went with it.”
Nelson entered Tuesday eighth in the National League with a 2.77 ERA since July 1 — it went down to 2.76 after his latest outing. At that point in the year, he had gone through ups and downs like last season, but he has since provided more reliability than anyone else in the rotation.
“Anytime he takes the mound right out, we know we’re gonna get his best stuff,” Grichuk said. “There’s a good chance he’ll be pitching into the seventh or the eighth.”
Nelson also had the opportunity to show off his skills as a former college shortstop.
His very last hitter Marco Luciano hit a swinging bunt to the left side, and Nelson jumped off the mound, bare-handed the baseball and delivered an accurate throw while falling away to record the out.
“You don’t get too many chances to prove your athleticism as a pitcher, and I like to take advantage of those opportunities,” Nelson said with a grin.
Diamondbacks’ bullpen nearly blows lead
Lovullo took Nelson out with two down in the seventh inning, and left-hander A.J. Puk struck out Luis Matos to end it.
San Francisco had the left-handed Yastrzemski leading off the eighth followed by three righties, and Lovullo made the move to right-hander Ryan Thompson.
Thompson had a day he’d like to forget, as Yastrzemski homered and two more Giants runs scored before another pitching change. Arizona went to Justin Martinez with runners on the corners and two outs with a 7-5 lead. Luciano singled in a run, but Martinez struck out Matos to keep the advantage, 7-6.
“I feel like I want to preserve as many guys as I possibly can and if I went five-plus with Puk, I probably would get him for tomorrow but possibly not have him for the next day,” Lovullo said of the decision. “These are big moments and a big series. We had a little bit of a backup and I wanted to use some guys. I felt like it was a really good spot for Thompson. Traditionally, he gets those big outs. Just didn’t happen tonight.”
Lovullo said he will continue to roll with matchups for the ninth inning amid 11.2 straight scoreless innings from Puk, saying he likes what he sees from Martinez.
The D-backs produced a critical insurance run in the ninth after Corbin Carroll singled, stole second, stole third and scored on a Christian Walker base hit up the box.
The Giants got one more off Martinez in the bottom half on a Ramos double, but the 23-year-old reliever stranded a pair of runners to earn his eighth save.
When asked whether he was concerned about the back end of the bullpen, Lovullo said, “Not really. I know there’s going to be good and bad days. Ryan’s done a great job for us. He’s clearly the reason for your question tonight, because I feel like Puk and J-Mart did an unbelievable job, but Ryan’s been great for us all year long.”
The Diamondbacks get Zac Gallen on the hill Wednesday against San Francisco right-hander Hayden Birdsong.
