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Clay Buchholz was outstanding this afternoon in Pittsburgh, tossing five scoreless innings, allowing only two hits. He walked none and struck out five, needing only 53 pitches to get through those five frames. However, he didn’t come out for the sixth inning, due to what the team described as tightness in his side. We’ll see how serious this turns out to be when a full assessment is made. Andrew Chafin and Yoshihisa Hirano combined for the next six outs, and Brad Boxberger closed out his first successful save since June 15.
The D-backs offense came alive early. David Peralta got it started with a two-run homer in the first inning. It’s his 15th this year, surpassing the tally for all of last year. John Ryan Murphy then added a solo shot, his ninth, in the second inning. Jake Lamb had two of the D-backs’ six hits, while Murphy had a hit and a walk. Buchholz’s outing was the fewest pitches by a winning starter in the NL since 2011 (Anthony Bass of the Padres needed 52 pitches to get through six and beat the Rockies on Sep 21).