Corbin Barrels: Carroll's slam backs Rodriguez en route to 100th career win

PHOENIX -- One hit.

As their offense has struggled for weeks now to put up crooked numbers, the Diamondbacks found ways to get runners on base. But getting that one hit to drive them in was where the trouble lied.

"We just haven't gotten that slug," manager Torey Lovullo said. "That one big hit at the right moment."

On Wednesday afternoon at Chase Field, though, Corbin Carroll delivered exactly that. His second-inning grand slam jump-started the offense in an 8-1 win over the Angels and a series victory.

The eight runs were the most the Diamondbacks had scored in a game since a 9-1 win over the Rockies on May 24. The 11 hits marked the first time they reached double-digits in the category since June 9.

Down 1-0 after Zach Neto led off the game with a homer, the Diamondbacks capitalized on a pair of walks and a hit batter to load the bases with two outs in the second when Carroll smoked a Sam Aldegheri changeup over the wall in right for his fifth career grand slam.

"That was it," Lovullo said of what he'd been talking about. "I think the dugout felt an immediate sigh of relief, and it took the air out of some very tense moments and games over the past 12 to 14 days, and that's what we want guys to do. That was a key moment for this ball club. And more to come, I'm sure."

The homer was fated when, in Carroll's nine-pitch first at-bat that resulted in a strikeout, Aldegheri threw him four changeups.

"I had seen a few [changeups] in that at-bat before," Carroll said. "Left-on-left changeups are not too common, but I felt like it helped, had seen it that at-bat before, and was able to put a good swing on it."

The homer was a continuation of Carroll’s dominance against left-handed pitchers this year. In 90 at-bats against southpaws, he has a .389/.446/.667 slash line.

The key to his success against lefties, Carroll said, was making sure that he gets consistent work in the cage against pitches coming from that angle.

"There's stretches of the season where you might not see a lefty for a week, so just making sure I'm still getting that work in, even when we do have stretches like that," Carroll said.

Aldegheri didn't regret throwing the changeup to Carroll, but didn't like the result.

"I think it was the right pitch, just the wrong location," Aldegheri said. "I just didn't execute. He already saw [four] in the first at-bat. I paid the price."

While Aldegheri paid the price, Diamondbacks starter Eduardo Rodriguez reaped the rewards.

The veteran lefty allowed Neto's leadoff homer, but that was the only run he allowed over seven innings to earn his 100th career win.

Rodriguez became the 17th active pitcher to reach the 100-win mark and just the ninth Venezuelan-born pitcher to do so.

"Feels great," Rodriguez said. "Getting to 100 wins was something that I wanted to accomplish and to have the opportunity to accomplish it here with this team, I just love it."

Rodriguez addressed his teammates after the game and shared with them how much it meant to him to achieve this milestone with them.

It was a full-circle moment for Lovullo, who was a coach with the Red Sox during part of Rodriguez's six seasons in Boston from 2015 to 2021.

"I've known him since he was 19 years old, and to celebrate that moment with him was pretty special for me," Lovullo said. "And we leaned on him today. We went out there and he gave up that first run. I think it kind of shocked the system a little bit. And then he went on absolute lockdown, and then the offense got moving in a very good direction."