Perdomo's Fifth-Inning Double Breaks SF's Back in 5-4 ARI Win
Arizona walked away with a 5-4 win over San Francisco on June 30, but the game was effectively decided by a single swing in the fifth inning. Geraldo Perdomo's two-out double to left plated three runs and sent Arizona's win probability rocketing from 73% to 92%.
The Diamondbacks didn't waste any time. Ketel Marte opened the scoring with a 367-foot home run to right in the first inning, staking Arizona to a 1-0 lead before San Francisco had even settled in. Eduardo Rodriguez then went to work, and the left-hander was sharp — 7.0 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned run, zero walks, and 1 strikeout. That kind of efficiency is the backbone of a winning effort, and it looks like Rodriguez was the single biggest reason Arizona never had to sweat this one out.
San Francisco briefly tied it at 1-1 in the fifth when a Cox sacrifice bunt scored Bericoto, but the answer came immediately and emphatically. Perdomo doubled to left, scoring Arenado, Marte, and Troy to push Arizona to a 4-1 lead — the win probability swing from 73% to 92% on that one play tells you everything about how decisive that moment was. Nolan Arenado then added an exclamation point in the sixth, launching a 397-foot solo shot to left to make it 5-1. Arenado finished 2-for-2 with a homer, an RBI, and two runs scored. Marte matched him with two runs scored of his own. Arizona's middle of the order was simply a different class.
San Francisco's late push deserves acknowledgment, even if it ultimately fell short. The Giants chipped away in the eighth on a Schmitt sacrifice fly, then Heliot Ramos crushed a 415-foot homer to left center in the ninth to make it 5-3, and Cavanaugh's single to right scored Eldridge to pull it to 5-4. Bryce Eldridge and Victor Bericoto each went 2-for-4 and 2-for-3 respectively, giving the Giants some life on the offensive side. But San Francisco's pitching staff — JT Brubaker lasted just 3.1 innings and Tyler Mahle surrendered 4 earned runs over 4.1 innings — made the mountain too steep to climb. The story of the night was Arizona's rotation doing exactly what San Francisco's couldn't, and Perdomo's fifth-inning double ensuring the Diamondbacks never had to look over their shoulder.