Ziegler closes out Marlins to end D-backs' skid
PHOENIX -- The Diamondbacks hadn't won in 12 days and manager Chip Hale desperately wanted to end a six-game losing streak. So he went somewhere he hadn't all season.
Hale on Monday called on Brad Ziegler with one out in the eighth inning to preserve a two-run lead.
Ziegler's last save of at least five outs was in 2009 while with the A's, and he threw 26 pitches in two innings on Friday. But the sidearmer closed the door on the Marlins and secured the 3-1 victory at Chase Field.
Ziegler came on with two runners on base and induced a fielder's choice and walked Adeiny Hechavarria to load the bases. Derek Dietrich then grounded out on a full-count pitch to end the threat, but Ziegler needed 20 pitched to get through the inning.
"I think everyone in the whole ballpark was hoping my spot wouldn't come up in the bottom of the eighth," said Ziegler, who set down the Marlins in order in the ninth for his 15th save in 17 opportunities. "I knew we were a little shorthanded tonight so it didn't surprise me when (Hale) called down and told me to get up in the eighth inning."
It was Ziegler's sixth career save of at least five outs. He threw a season-high 40 pitches.
"We wanted to win the game and he's that guy we talked about from the start of him going into the ninth-inning role," Hale said, "that if I had to use him in the eighth to get a groundball we would.
"He threw a lot of pitches, going to have to have a couple days off, probably; maybe one. We'll see how he feels tomorrow. That's the hard part about it but you have to secure the win with your best guy."
David Peralta gave the D-backs the early lead with a two-out, two-run single to left field that scored Nick Ahmed and A.J. Pollock in the third.
Rubby De La Rosa brought in the third run when he dropped a ball in front of Ichiro Suzuki in right field in the sixth.
De La Rosa also kept the Marlins scoreless through six innings, with the help of four double plays. Miami's only run came on Dietrich's leadoff home run in the seventh that bounced off the top of the right-field fence.
"I tried to do my job and pitch down," De La Rosa (7-5) said, "and I can get those double plays when I pitch down."
The six-game losing streak was the D-backs' longest of the season.
"We had such a tough little stretch in New York before the break and then came out kind of sluggish and just didn't play good baseball against the Giants," Ziegler said of the two series in which Arizona was swept. "The effort was there but the execution wasn't. And tonight we executed a lot better, got the hits when the needed them and Rubby was phenomenal keeping them off the board."
Three pitches into the game, Suzuki feigned as though he was hit by a De La Rosa fastball and was awarded first base by home plate umpire Larry Vanover. But Hale challenged and the video replay clearly showed the ball hit the bat. It was the 13th overturned call in the D-backs' favor on 17 challenges.
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Hale said he plans to give Pollock a day off either Tuesday or Wednesday and would like to do the same for Paul Goldschmidt this week. "I think you're a better player when you get a day off every now and then," Hale said. "I mentioned to Goldy I want to give him a day off on this homestand and he didn't look very happy about that. He said, 'Well, you have to do what you have to do but I feel great. ... I'm going to get a couple of hits today to make sure you don't sit me tomorrow.' It's just so hard when you put pen to paper not to put him name in there."
