Willy Adames and Patrick Bailey hit home runs, Joel Peguero and Ryan Walker pitched out of late jams and the San Francisco Giants made it two straight over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks with a 5-3 victory on Tuesday.
Robbie Ray remained unbeaten against his former team with a third consecutive win, combining with four relievers on an eight-hitter as the Giants (74-71) won for the 13th time in the past 16 games.
San Francisco trails the New York Mets (76-69) by two games for the final National League wild card.
It took all of three batters for the Giants to take a 3-0 lead. After Diamondbacks starter Zac Gallen walked Heliot Ramos and Rafael Devers to begin the last of the first, Adames launched his 28th home run of the season, a three-run shot that gave the hosts the upper hand for good.
Bailey’s homer, his fifth, opened the last of the fifth and put the Giants up 5-2 after the Diamondbacks had gotten to Ray for two runs in the top of the inning.
Ray (11-6) was pulled after the fifth, having allowed two runs and three hits. He walked two and struck out five.
Seeking to end a two-game losing streak, the Diamondbacks (72-74) got within 5-3 on an RBI single by Ildemaro Vargas off Giants reliever Matt Gage with one out in the sixth.
Peguero took over with the potential tying runs in scoring position and struck out Tim Tawa and pinch hitter Adrian Del Castillo to end the threat.
Walker entered in the ninth with a two-run lead, but he immediately got into trouble when pinch hitter Jake McCarthy singled and Del Castillo walked.
However, the San Francisco closer induced pinch hitter Connor Kaiser into bunting into a forceout at third base, then got pinch hitter Alek Thomas to pop up and Ketel Marte to ground out for his 15th save.
Matt Chapman added a double for the Giants, who had only five hits, three of which went for extra bases.
Tawa and Blaze Alexander collected two hits apiece for Arizona, which went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Gallen (11-14) yielded all five Giants runs on five hits in 6 2/3 innings. He walked three and struck out three.
–Field Level Media
