Corbin Carroll hit a grand slam to break an eighth-inning tie and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 on Saturday night in Phoenix for their fourth straight victory. The late blow turned a tight game into another clean finish for Arizona, while Toronto was left to absorb the cost of one bad inning after hanging around long enough to make the score look manageable.
Who Controlled the Game
Ildemaro Vargas led off the eighth against reliever Jeff Hoffman (1-2) with a single, extending his majors-leading hitting streak to 17 games dating to last season. Alek Thomas followed with a single and Ketel Marte drew a four-pitch walk before Carroll hit his fourth career grand slam and third homer of the season, a drive to left-center on a 3-1 pitch. That sequence was the whole apparatus of the inning: one hit, another hit, a walk, then the hammer dropped. The Blue Jays’ bullpen could not stop the chain reaction once it started.
Juan Morillo (1-1) pitched 1 1/3 innings for his first victory in the majors. The win belonged to the Arizona side, but the real damage came from the lineup’s ability to turn a tie into a rout in a single swing. Carroll’s grand slam was the decisive act, and it came after Arizona had already stacked the bases with the kind of pressure that leaves the defense waiting for the inevitable.
Toronto's Max Scherzer returned to the place where his big-league journey began and, after struggling in his first three starts, showed flashes of his career. He got through a 22-pitch first inning allowing one run, then completed six innings having allowed five hits total. He had one walk and one strikeout and finished with 74 pitches. The veteran’s line showed a pitcher trying to steady a game that never fully settled into Toronto’s control.
How the Tie Broke
The Blue Jays tied it in the sixth after an overturned call kept the inning going. With Eloy Jiménez on first base and one out, Andrés Giménez hit a grounder to first for an apparent double play, but replay showed shortstop Geraldo Perdomo was off the bag at second. Kazuma Okamoto followed with a two-out RBI single to tie it at 2 and chase Zac Gallen. Gallen gave up nine hits but two runs in 5 2/3 innings. The replay system, that little machine of official correction, kept Toronto alive long enough to make the game look open again before Arizona slammed it shut.
The inning that tied the game also exposed how thin the margin was for Toronto. One overturned call, one RBI single, and the score was level. But the Blue Jays could not convert that opening into anything lasting, and the late innings belonged to Arizona’s bats.
What the Numbers Left Behind
Lourdes Gurriel returned to the Diamondbacks' lineup for the first time since tearing the ACL in his right knee on Sept. 1. The left fielder was 0 for 4 and threw out Myles Straw trying to stretch a single into a double to end the Toronto fourth. His return added another layer to Arizona’s night, even if the box score did not hand him the headline.
Toronto RHP Kevin Gausman (0-1, 2.42) was set to face RHP Ryne Nelson (1-1, 3.54) on Sunday in the series finale. For now, though, the story was already written in the eighth: Arizona’s lineup found the opening, Carroll delivered the grand slam, and the Blue Jays were left with a 6-2 loss and another reminder that one inning can decide everything.