Tawa's Three-Run Blast Breaks SF, Arizona Rolls 10-6
Tim Tawa's three-run homer to left center in the third inning swung San Francisco's win probability from 41% to 17% in a single swing, and the Giants never recovered. Arizona pounded out a 10-6 final, with four Diamondbacks going deep on the night.
The game looked like it might be anyone's early on. Lars Nootbaar opened the scoring with a 432-foot shot to center in the first, but Bryce Eldridge answered immediately with one of his own to right — 381 feet — to knot it at one. San Francisco actually grabbed a 2-1 lead in the second when a sacrifice fly scored Lee. Then the third inning happened, and it wasn't close again for long.
Corbin Carroll put Arizona back in front with a 419-foot two-run shot to center, scoring Nootbaar. Two batters later, Tawa unloaded a 379-foot three-run homer to left center, scoring Perdomo and Arenado, and suddenly it was 6-2. That's the play that broke the game open — San Francisco's win probability cratered from 41% to 17% in one at-bat. Eldridge doubled home a run in the bottom half, and Christian Koss kept the Giants technically alive with a two-run homer to left in the fourth that made it 6-5. But Arizona's bullpen slammed the door on that rally before it could breathe.
The story of the night, beyond the long ball barrage, appears to be Arizona's ability to keep answering every time San Francisco threatened. Ildemaro Vargas singled home two in the sixth, Carroll added a sacrifice fly for a third run that inning, and a McCann single in the seventh pushed it to 10-5. Kohl Drake was shaky — 5 earned runs in 4 innings — but Brandyn Garcia and Juan Morillo combined for 2 scoreless innings with 4 strikeouts between them to keep the lead intact. On the other side, Blade Tidwell lasted just 5 innings, allowing 6 earned runs on 7 hits. Arizona's offense was relentless: Nootbaar went 3-for-4 with a homer and two runs scored, Carroll drove in 3, and Tawa's 3-RBI night was the decisive blow. Four different Diamondbacks homered. That's not a fluke — that looks like a lineup that's locked in.