The Arizona Diamondbacks picked up their first win of the spring, defeating the Cleveland Guardians 4-3 at Salt River Fields. Star outfielder Corbin Carroll had a strong day at the plate, homering and drawing a walk that eventually became the run that made the difference.
Carroll's home run came against a former Diamondback Slade Cecconi, who was sent to Cleveland in the Josh Naylor trade. The former top prospect logged 104 innings across 27 appearances with Arizona, 17 of them starts.
The Diamondbacks then exploited some poor control from hard-throwing reliever Andrew Walters to take the lead in the fifth. A walk by Garrett Hampson and a single by Jorge Barrosa set them up for a big inning. Carroll's walk with one out loaded the bases. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove home the first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly, but it was Eugenio Suarez who delivered the big hit with a drive into the left field corner to take the lead.
Zac Gallen made his Cactus League debut in this game and went just one inning. His lone mistake was grooving a changeup to Gabriel Arias for a home run, but he also had two strikeouts on fastballs. Gallen's fastball was operating in the 89-92 MPH range.
Cleveland scored two runs off Josh Winder in the third. A two-out walk came in front of Kyle Manzardo, who crushed a two-run homer to right-center that put Cleveland up by three in the third. That would be it from a scoring standpoint for the Guardians, as Zane Russell, Jeff Brigham, Kyle Backhus, Taylor Rashi, and Conor Grammes combined for 5 1/3 hitless innings to close the game out. Russell was credited with the win and Grammes with the save.
The Diamondbacks will travel down the 101 to take on the Chicago Cubs at Sloan Park. Left-handed reliever A.J. Puk is starting the game for Arizona, opposed by right-hander Jameson Taillon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 P.M. MST and will be viewable on the Marquee Sports Network broadcast on MLB.tv.