The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Kansas City Royals at Salt River Fields 6-1. Corbin Carroll was the early catalyst, getting a hit in all three of his trips to the plate, homering, and driving in three of the team's first four runs.
Carroll has been on a tear in his last three Cactus League games. In those games he's 6-for-7 with three home runs, two walks, and one strikeout. He's now batting .600 with a 2.167 OPS this spring. It's a great sign to see him off to this kind of run and hopefully it carries into the regular season.
Corbin Carroll opened the scoring in the third inning, chopping a high fastball up the middle through a drawn-in infield to score Jorge Barrosa, who tripled to begin the inning. In the fifth, the Diamondbacks blew it open, with Gino Groover homering to make it 2-0, followed by Carroll's two-run shot.
Diamondbacks bring their "A" game on the mound
With Merrill Kelly, Ryne Nelson, and the A bullpen pitching in this game, the four runs of support they got was more than enough. Kelly in his spring debut was going strong, sitting 92-95 MPH with all three of his fastballs. He completed two scoreless innings with just one hit, one walk and two strikeouts.
Following up Kelly was Nelson. The young right-hander also pitched two scoreless innings, walking two and striking out one. This coming on the heels of Brandon Pfaadt's stellar outing against the Reds on Thursday, the two youngsters have set a high bar to clear in the competition for the final rotation spot. Jordan Montgomery's salary and previous track record complicates things, but we'll see if performance dictates who gets the final spot.
Following Nelson was the back end of the Diamondbacks bullpen. The quartet of Joe Mantiply, Kevin Ginkel, A.J. Puk, and Justin Martinez combined to allow just one run on two hits, one walk, and three strikeouts. Martinez was especially nasty, reaching up to 103.5 MPH with his fastball and got a pair of whiffs on his demonic splitter. He's making the push to be the next closer.
The lone blemish came against Ginkel, who surrendered a solo home run from M.J. Melendez for the Royals' only run of the game. With the back end of the bullpen doing well this spring, there is hope for a shutdown bullpen for 2025.
The Diamondbacks will stay at Salt River Fields and take on their complex rival in the Colorado Rockies, who are 6-2 this spring. Right-hander Zac Gallen will go for Arizona while Chase Dollander takes the bump for the Rockies. First pitch is set for 1:10 P.M. MST. There will be a television broadcast, the first for the Diamondbacks this spring, which you can get as a free game from MLB.tv.