'Very gritty' D-backs grind out series-clinching win over Phillies

PHILADELPHIA -- They've played one of the toughest schedules in baseball. They are without their ace pitcher and co-closers. Their All-Star outfielder missed two of the last four games and their starting catcher went down with an injury Friday, and will likely follow a pair of other starting outfielders onto the injured list.

Yet, 16 games into this season, the Arizona Diamondbacks find themselves winners of nine of their last 13 and hold a 9-7 record following another hard-fought victory over the Phillies, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon.

Arizona is now 4-2 on its nine-game road trip, including series wins over the Mets and Phillies with a three-game set in Baltimore yet to play.

"Good team win, good series win," said Zac Gallen, who started Sunday's game. "We're just trying to keep the momentum up. I think as a team, we believe in the talent that's in here. Obviously we know the guys that are on the IL that are working hard to come back. I think I said at the beginning of the year that the guys here are going to make the guys coming back, make it hard on them to earn their spot back. I think guys are playing free and not playing scared."

As it has seemingly for most of their wins this year, the Diamondbacks managed to do the little things right Sunday while the Phillies did not.

Give the Diamondbacks the smallest of openings and they'll find a way to slither through it.

For example, in the second inning, Nolan Arenado, who has been struggling at the plate early on, managed to lift a soft fly ball to left center that landed just out of the diving reach of left fielder Brandon Marsh.

Arenado was running hard out of the box, so when Marsh flipped the ball over the head of nearby shortstop Trea Turner, Arenado was able to advance to second and therefore scored easily on James McCann's double one out later.

In the sixth with the bases loaded and one out, Arenado found a way to lift a fly ball to right field to bring home a run.

Contrast that with the Phillies, who finally got to Gallen in the sixth with five straight hits to open the inning. That led to three runs, but with runners on first and third and no outs, Philadelphia failed to tack on more runs.

Then in the eighth, Bryce Harper led off with a walk and Marsh singled him to third. It was the perfect opportunity for the Phillies to tie the game with one run or take the lead by pushing two across.

Instead, Bryson Stott struck out and Adolis Garcia popped up to shallow right field. Marsh was running on the pop up and wasn't able to locate the ball in time to return to first, where he was doubled off to end the threat.

It certainly wasn't the way they drew it up, as Arizona manager Torey Lovullo brought reliever Ryan Thompson in to face Garcia in hopes of getting a groundball double play. Thompson even joked about the improbability of it all.

"Behind in the count, left a sinker up, exactly what I was trying to do," he joked. "Get him to pop up, be slow to the plate to give Marsh confidence to [try and] steal second and get the pop up and cover first. That's how we draw it up."

The Diamondbacks will get a boost Tuesday when Merrill Kelly returns from the IL, but they'll have to wait a few more weeks for outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to return and it will be later in May or June when co-closer A.J. Puk will be back.

Ace Corbin Burnes is on target to come back from Tommy John surgery around the All-Star break with their other closer, Justin Martinez, probably after the Trade Deadline.

Until then, the Diamondbacks will continue to try and find ways to stay afloat and win games.

"We're very gritty, and we like these kinds of games," Lovullo said. "We play a lot of one-run games. So I want these guys to continue to go out play good baseball, win series, and just see where that takes us."