Soroka matches HOFer with 10-K start after shaky 1st inning

PHILADELPHIA -- Before Michael Soroka could get his feet under himself in the bottom of the first inning Friday night, the Phillies were all over the bases.

Trea Turner singled, Kyle Schwarber walked and Bryce Harper doubled home a run before Brandon Marsh followed with a three-run homer.

Suddenly, it was a four-run deficit, and the wheels were turning inside the Diamondbacks dugout as manager Torey Lovullo and pitching coach Brian Kaplan started looking at their options. What would they do if Soroka gets knocked out here early? How would they finish up the game? What would that mean for tomorrow?

"We're trying to budget for things going totally haywire," Lovullo said after the D-backs rallied for a 5-4 victory. "That's what you have to do."

On the mound, Soroka had his own thoughts. He tipped his cap to Marsh for going the opposite way.

Soroka at that point realized that the game was no longer about him; it was about what he could do for his team at that point, and the thing that mattered most was finding a way to get out of the nightmarish first and then go as deep into the game as he could so that Lovullo's worst-case plans would never see the light of day.

"There's a different purpose to that game at that point," said Soroka, who joined Hall of Famer Randy Johnson as the only pitchers with 10+ K's in two of their first three appearances with the D-backs. "As a starting pitcher, it's going to happen. You got a job to do, and you got to get out there and eat some innings and give your team a chance to come back."

But would the Diamondbacks be able to mount a comeback? They were without the services of All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll for the second straight night due to a tight hip flexor. Catcher Gabriel Moreno, their No. 4 hitter and a key offensive contributor, was forced to leave the game in the third inning. And, Philadelphia starter Jesús Luzardo was rolling early in the game.

Yet, as they've made a habit of doing early this season, the Diamondbacks found a way as they rallied to beat the Phillies and run their winning streak to three games.

"This lineup, it doesn't matter who's in it," Soroka said of the Diamondbacks. "We have speed. We have the ability to put the ball out of the park. Again, I've said this before, it's nice that I don't have to face this team anymore, because it was a very tough, tough lineup to pitch against."

Luzardo, though, made it look easy, holding the Diamondbacks hitless through four innings.

Then, as it often has this year, the inning that turned the tide for the Diamondbacks started small.

Jose Fernandez led off the fifth with a single, Tim Tawa drew a walk and Alek Thomas tried to lay down a sacrifice, which turned into a bunt single to load the bases.

"We work really hard at our bunting game," Lovullo said. "[Bench coach] Jeff Banister has those boys bunting every single day, and you can see how much it's translated into some really successful moments. It was the Tawa walk that made it first and second, and then A.T. gets a bunt down and takes advantage of it. Now, all of a sudden, you've got the bases loaded with the top of the order coming up, and we were bound to score some runs."

And they did.

Ketel Marte singled home two runs before Ildemaro Vargas singled home one as the next batter. Then, with two outs in the inning, James McCann, who entered the game to replace Moreno and was hitting .071, smacked a two-run double to plate two and cap a five-run inning that put Arizona up, 5-4.

For his part, Soroka found a way to settle in, and after the first four batters of the game, he allowed just two more hits and struck out 10 before exiting the game with two outs in the sixth.

“I think you've got to give Soroka some credit,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “He started landing that curveball and splitter, whatever you want to call it. That's a pretty good pitch for him, on righties and lefties.”