CINCINNATI -- Prior to Sunday’s game against the Reds, Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo related the heartfelt experience of watching his son Nick serve as bench coach on Saturday night for Triple-A Iowa at Louisville.
That came after Arizona’s disappointing one-run loss to Cincinnati. On Sunday, Lovullo had a much different experience, talking about his club’s 5-3 series-winning victory over the Reds, the 700th of his managerial career with the D-backs.
Lovullo became the eighth active skipper in MLB -- and 106th all-time -- to reach the mark.
“I owe a lot to [managing general partner Ken Kendrick], [president and CEO Derrick Hall] and [executive vice president and general manager Mike Hazen] for believing in me as long as they have, and there have been some very hard moments here,” Lovullo said, “but we're on a journey to do something really, really amazing, and the fact that they believe in me, that means a lot to me.”
Tommy Troy, Geraldo Perdomo and Gabriel Moreno all homered to help the D-backs salvage a 2-4 road trip through Miami and Cincinnati with their 23rd comeback win -- tied with Atlanta for the most in MLB this season.
“He means a lot. He's one of the best managers in baseball,” Perdomo said. “I'm proud for him. He's like my dad, and I'm so happy for him. He deserves it, and you know he's hungry to win. That's why we've been fighting so, so hard, because we want to win. We're going to win for him.”
“It's funny, I have three amazing kids of my own, but I have 26 kids, rotating kids, who's ever inside of this clubhouse, I consider my own,” Lovullo said. “I learned from Tito [Reds manager Terry Francona], and he treats them the same way, and I know that remedy works.
“So I'm certainly closer to more certain types of players that I've been around longer, [Ketel] Marte, Perdomo, Zac [Gallen]. It was nice that one day they contributed to this win for me, and I'll never forget it.”
Perdomo created a stir by disrupting a mascot race and belting a two-run homer in the top of the sixth inning, while Moreno cranked a go-ahead solo homer in the eighth.
Juan Morillo pitched a scoreless seventh for the win and Paul Sewald secured his 17th save in 18 opportunities after a 72-minute rain delay prior to the start of the ninth inning.
Noelvi Marte blasted a Gallen slider a projected 448 feet to left-center to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. Perdomo exchanged words and gestures with former teammate Eugenio Suárez in the Reds’ dugout as Marte returned to the visitors’ dugout following his game-tying jack, his third in as many games.
“Just trash-talking a little bit, but it's nothing serious,” Perdomo said. “Me and Geno, we are great friends and me and Noelvi, my brother, so I just tried talking [crap] to Noelvi right there.”
Marte nearly reprised his leaping game-saving catch from Cincinnati’s home finale in 2025, but he couldn’t reach Moreno’s fly to the first row of seats in right off reliever Zach Maxwell.
Gallen surpassed Brandon Webb for second on the D-backs’ all-time strikeout leaderboard, when he fanned Jose Trevino for the second out in the fourth. It was his third strikeout of the game and raised his total to 1,066 in his Arizona career, one better than Webb.
Of course, Randy Johnson holds the all-time mark at 2,077. Gallen received a no-decision, tossing six innings, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks to go with four strikeouts.
“I honestly didn't know how close I was,” Gallen said of passing Webb. “I knew at some point [I would], but I just wasn't really keeping track. I mean it's great. Webb, he's an all-timer, so to kind of pass him, it's been fun to see my name get up there every time. We joke about who's in first. I think I [need] to play like 20 more years and see if I can get first place, but yeah [second place] is a nice honor for sure.”