MIAMI -- Zack Godley knuckled down on Tuesday and led Arizona back to its winning ways in a 5-3 victory over the Marlins, evening the four-game series at one apiece.
The D-backs are now 9-2 in their last 11 road games and have won five of their last six games, rebounding from a 9-5 loss in the series opener with the Marlins on Monday.
Godley, now 9-5 this season, leaned on his knuckle curve -- which he refers to as his "spike curveball" -- on Tuesday as he has for much of the season. With a 40.2 percent whiff rate on the pitch, who could blame him? Since learning the pitch from D-backs teammate Jeremy Hellickson in 2015, Godley has incorporated the newfound weapon into his repertoire with a high success rate.
"Curveball worked out really well," said Godley, who matched a career high with his fourth consecutive win while setting a career mark with his ninth win this season. "Guys put some bad swings on it. I also left a couple of them where I shouldn't have, and guys put some good swings on it. But for the most part it worked out well."
He throws it 38.6 percent of the time on average. Only Houston's Lance McCullers (44.2) employs it with more regularity. On Tuesday, of his 98 pitches (61 strikes), 46 were knuckle curves (32 strikes). He recorded all four strikeouts with the pitch.
"Zack was great tonight," said catcher John Ryan Murphy, who led the charge offensively going 2-for-3 with a double and a career-high tying three RBIs. "Really good curveball tonight, his fastball was in the zone. When his fastball is in the zone, and he's got the good curveball, it's going to be a good game. Days that he has the real good (curveball), we seem to lean on that a lot."
Working one batter into the sixth inning, Godley allowed six hits and two runs in his first appearance at Marlins Park. It's the fifth time in his last six starts that Godley has allowed two or fewer earned runs in a game.
"That just shows his toughness. When there's traffic he doesn't back down," D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said. "He continues to make pitches. He won the game. He pitched into the sixth inning and won the game. That's the bottom line."
The D-backs didn't score their customary first-inning runs, but they did score first. Back-to-back RBI doubles from Jake Lamb and David Peralta gave Arizona a 2-0 lead in the third inning. The D-backs had scored in the first inning in six of their previous seven games and have recorded a total of 56 first-inning runs for the season.
Murphy increased the lead to 4-1 in the fifth inning with a clutch two-out, two-run double, then added a sacrifice fly in the seventh to offset a Marlins run in the fifth to push the lead to 5-2.

"There weren't a lot of runs tonight, so it was nice to contribute to the ones we did have," Murphy said.
Yoshihisa Hirano held the lead with a shaky but scoreless eighth inning, extending his scoreless-outings streak to 23 games, the club record for a rookie pitcher. After getting Justin Bour to fly out to deep center field with the bases loaded, Hirano is now one scoreless appearance shy of the club's all-time mark of 24, set by both J.J. Putz (2012) and Brandon Lyon (2008). It's also his 17th hold of the season, the most by a D-backs rookie in the first half of a season.
"That speaks for itself," Lovullo said. "He's absolutely earned our trust, and he deserves those [appearances].
Brad Boxberger closed it out with a clean ninth inning, earning his 18th save in 22 chances.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
With a bases-loaded, two-outs situation in the eighth inning and Arizona clinging to a 5-3 lead, Hirano ended the Marlins' final threat of the game by getting Bour to fly out to center field.
"We thought he was a good matchup if Yoshi made his pitches," Lovullo said. "And [Bour's] their main guy. It's a point in the game where everybody is holding their breath, and you're hoping that you can execute, and we did."

SOUND SMART
The D-backs collected four doubles against the Marlins, the most they've totaled against Miami in a game this season. It tied for the club most against any National League East opponent this season, matching the four doubles against the Phillies on April 26.

HE SAID IT
"I felt really good going into the game and felt strong throughout the game. I had to battle through some stuff and ended up not going as deep into the game as what I'd like to have. But other than that, a win is a win, so that's a great day." -- Godley, on the win
UP NEXT
Left-hander Robbie Ray (2-0, 4.88 ERA) will be activated from the 10-day DL to start against the Marlins at 4:10 p.m. MST on Wednesday at Marlins Park. Ray has been out with an oblique strain since April 29. Ray is 9-1 with a 2.17 ERA in 19 road starts since 2017 and 1-2 with a 3.06 ERA in three career starts against the Marlins. Miami counters with left-hander Wei-Yin Chen (2-4, 6.70), who is making his first career start against the D-backs.