Phoenix, AZ (Sports Network) – Chris Young drove in a career-high five runs and scored three times while finishing a triple shy of the cycle, as the Arizona Diamondbacks dominated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-5, in the opener of a three-game series at Chase Field.
The victory came a day after the club fired manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Josh Byrnes. Jerry Dipoto took over the general manager duties in the interim, while Kirk Gibson was named the manager of the team for the remainder of the season.
In fact, this proved to be the second straight year the Diamondbacks have fired a manager in-season after dismissing Bob Melvin in May of last year. Prior to Friday’s game, Arizona was 17 games under .500 at 31-48 and 15 games back of the first-place San Diego Padres in the National League West.
Mark Reynolds and Miguel Montero each had two RBI to give Gibson the win in his managerial debut.
Edwin Jackson (6-6) made his first start since tossing a no-hitter against the Rays last Friday. It was hardly a flawless outing, though, as the right-hander walked eight batters and used an incredible 149 pitches – the most ever in a no-hitter – in the team’s 1-0 win.
This time around, Jackson got through just one inning before giving up a hit. He ended up allowing four runs on seven hits in five frames to win his third straight start. He also fanned four batters and walked three.
Blake DeWitt drove in three runs for the Dodgers, who saw their three-game winning streak come to an end. James Loney had three hits, knocked in two runs, and scored once in defeat.
Los Angeles starter Hiroki Kuroda (7-6) got rocked in 1 2/3 frames, giving up a season-high six earned runs on eight hits.