PHOENIX — It was not quite 8-0 bad, but the start of Tuesday’s Arizona Diamondbacks game took the wind out of Chase Field pretty quickly for the second straight game, an 11-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Starting pitcher Merrill Kelly — making his first start at Chase Field since having been traded to Texas last summer — walked off the mound after the first inning with a 4-0 deficit.
A potential double-play ground ball by two-hole hitter Munetaka Murakami got stuck in the webbing of third baseman Nolan Arenado’s glove, and the inning snowballed from there.
Kelly threw 34 pitches in the first inning, and his home return soured further in the second when Murakami, Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery hit back-to-back-to-back home runs.
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Murakami previously took Kelly deep during the championship game of the World Baseball Classic in 2023 for Japan. The rookie who set the home run record in Japan’s NBP is up to nine big flies this season, having homered in four straight games.
Kelly’s night ended at 4.1 innings and eight earned runs, as they awarded Murakami a single in the first inning instead of charging Arenado with an error.
The White Sox (9-14) have rocketed 13 home runs over the past 5 games, 10 coming across the past three. Chicago scored 22 runs in its last series against the Athletics.
Diamondbacks’ starters having a tough couple games
D-backs starter Ryne Nelson allowed eight runs without getting out of the first inning of Sunday’s loss to the Toronto Blue Jays. That’s two straight games when the Diamondbacks were essentially knocked out within the first two innings.
The starting rotation had previously pitched really well. Entering Sunday, Arizona starters accounted for a 3.40 ERA, ninth in Major League Baseball. Two starts later, that number increased to 4.03, 16th in MLB.
For Kelly, this was his second start of 2026 after he missed nearly the first three weeks of the year with a back irritation that popped up early in spring training. He put the White Sox in too many advantage counts, surrendering 10 hits and three walks.
The Diamondbacks were able to ride Brandon Pfaadt for 6.1 innings of relief on Sunday but had to patch Tuesday’s game together with Taylor Clarke, Jonathan Loaisiga, Kevin Ginkel, Ryan Thompson and catcher James McCann.
McCann entered in the ninth inning for Thompson (three earned runs) and recorded three outs without an earned run, exclusively lobbing eephus pitches. Arizona trailed 11-2 before rallying in the bottom half.
Arizona’s offense wasted an opportunity with two men on base in the first inning and was otherwise pretty quiet until the ninth inning.
Alek Thomas hit his first home run of the season in the fifth, going the opposite way off White Sox starter Sean Burke.
Chicago made a series of excellent defensive plays, as well, most notably a Superman diving play from right fielder Everson Pereira that saved at least one, maybe two runs in the seventh inning.
Arizona was 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position until the final frame.
Ildemaro Vargas hit a three-run home run in his final at-bat to extend his hitting streak to 16 games to start the season. Vargas’ OPS is up to 1.004, and Arenado scored his 1,000th career run.
E-Rod bump day
The Diamondbacks will turn to Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound on Wednesday, as the club looks to avoid its first series loss since facing the Los Angeles Dodgers to start the year.
The D-backs will face left-hander Anthony Kay, who will make his fifth appearance since returning to MLB after pitching in Japan over the previous two seasons.
The game starts at 6:40 p.m. on ESPN 620 AM and the Arizona Sports app.
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