PHILADELPHIA -- Zack Godley spent nearly an extra hour on Saturday afternoon waiting out the rain. Once he finally got to the mound, he was in attack mode.
Godley struck out the first four hitters he saw en route to a career-best eight-strikeout performance in the D-backs' 5-1 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Godley's pregame routine was interrupted by a thunderstorm, which delayed the game by 50 minutes. But the stoppage did not seem to bother the 27-year-old righty.
"I guess some of that goes on them, as far as trying to get relaxed," Godley said. "After the rain delay, I was trying to get on them. I tried to go at guys and keep getting ground balls, and I was able to get some strikeouts. It was nice."
Godley struck out the side in the first inning, getting Odubel Herrera, Howie Kendrick and Aaron Altherr all to swing and miss against offspeed pitches. Godley continued the K's in the second, fanning Tommy Joseph with a fastball off the outside corner.
Godley retired the first six batters he saw, and though he ran into some trouble in later innings, he still turned in a 5 2/3-innings performance with just one earned run allowed on five hits.
"What more could you ask?" D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "I know he gave up one run. We kind of clipped him a little bit short and didn't let him finish that final inning, but it was time to hand it off to the bullpen, and make sure we did things to win the game. But once again, Zack was outstanding."
Saturday marked the eighth start of the season for Godley, who began the season in Triple-A Reno. He was originally just in the rotation as an injury replacement, but has pitched too well to come out. He slightly lowered his season ERA to 2.34 with the outing in Philadelphia.
He wasn't dominant after the second inning, but still managed to limit the damage against him with some help from his defense. The Phillies left two men on in the third, the bases loaded in the fourth, and the only run against him came in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Knapp. Reliever Jorge De La Rosa stranded another runner at third in that inning.
"The ball was moving really well today," said Godley, who threw 99 pitches. "I was making good pitches and kind of got away from it in the later innings. I stacked on some pitches in the later innings and ran my pitch count up. But overall, it was a great team win."