D-backs bide their time, beat up on Padres' bullpen

PHOENIX -- As the innings wore on and the D-backs continued to come up empty offensively against Padres right-hander Tyson Ross, there was no panic in the dugout.

"The guys kept at it, the attitude was good on the bench," D-backs manager Chip Hale said after the 6-4 D-backs victory Tuesday night. "And the one thing I kept harping on was you could see his pitch count was rising, and we knew at some point we would get him out of the game."

Finally, with Ross at 106 pitches, Padres manager Pat Murphy pinch-hit for him in the top of the seventh.

As soon as the Padres bullpen came on, the dormant D-backs offense came alive, scoring five times in the seventh.

"He's nasty," D-backs outfielder A.J. Pollock said of Ross. "I don't know if there's anyone in the league that gets that type of movement on his pitches that he does. His fastball, sometimes it will go straight down, sometimes it will go across like a two-seamer. It's really difficult to zone in on where it needs to start in order for you to be swinging. He's got great stuff."

The first Padres reliever in the game, Bud Norris, walked Chris Owings, allowed a triple to Nick Ahmed and walked pinch-hitter Aaron Hill.

Murphy had seen enough at that point and brought in Kevin Quackenbush to face Pollock.

"I really wanted to be aggressive," Pollock said. "You've got a guy on first and third and key spot to get that run in. His fastball plays really up. It's like 90-92, but it gets on you more like 94-95, so I just wanted to be ready."

Quackenbush uncorked a 90-mph fastball for his first pitch of the game, and Pollock mashed it into the left field bleachers for a three-run homer that gave the D-backs a 5-3 lead.

Pollock, who made his first All-Star Game appearance this year, has a slash line of .312/.361/.491, and in addition to his 17 homers he has 35 stolen bases.

"It's kind of not surprising anymore," D-backs closer Brad Ziegler said. "He's kind of like [Paul Goldschmidt]. It's like we're surprised when they don't get a hit at this point."