Back-to-back homers in 7th lead Diamondbacks past Pirates for series sweep

The Arizona Diamondbacks might have the worst record in baseball, but the Pittsburgh Pirates gave reason for debate over which team is the worst in the National League, if not the majors.

Pavin Smith and Daulton Varsho hit back-to-back home runs off Duane Underwood Jr. in the seventh inning as the Diamondbacks won 6-4 for a sweep of their three-game series Wednesday afternoon at Chase Field.

It was the second sweep of the season for the Diamondbacks (30-68), who have won 14 of their last 15 games against the Pirates. It marked the eighth time the Pirates have been swept in a three-game series this season, while also dropping a two-game series to Kansas City.

What was bewildering to Pirates manager Derek Shelton is the drop-off after winning four of seven games against the NL East first-place New York Mets, only to lose three straight at NL West last-place Arizona. The Pirates (36-60) travel Thursday, then play three games at the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants (59-35).

“Yeah, it’s frustrating,” Shelton said. “I mean, we played really well — that whole Mets series, all seven games of it. Then to come out here and to not capitalize on that momentum we had going, yeah, it’s extremely frustrating. We have to take the off day and regroup because we’re getting ready to play one of the best teams in baseball.”

The Pirates, who have lost four straight, have plenty of places to pin blame, starting with poor pitching and ending with their failure to hit with runners in scoring position. They stranded eight, leaving the bases loaded when Jacob Stallings hit into an inning-ending double play in the seventh.

Max Kranick’s third start was a struggle, as he gave up leadoff singles in the second and third innings and a double to start the fourth — and all ended up scoring. Kranick allowed seven hits and one walk while throwing 74 pitches in three innings.

“When you don’t command from the first hitter of the inning and then you’re pitching out of the stretch, it’s challenging,” Shelton said. “And then he did seem to execute his secondary stuff then but we have to execute it before that to stay out of those situations.”

The Diamondbacks tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the second, when Smith singled to right and scored from third on Bryan Holaday’s RBI single to left. They took a 2-1 lead in the third, when Josh Rojas hit a leadoff single to right-center, stole second base, advanced to third on a Kranick wild pitch and scored on David Peralta’s two-out double.

Oliva hit a shot that skipped off Escobar’s glove for a two-run error, allowing Stallings and Kevin Newman to score for a 3-2 lead in the fourth. But Jared Oliva couldn’t catch a Varsho fly ball off the left-field wall for a double, and Gregory Polanco misplayed a Nick Ahmed line drive to right that went off his glove to score Varsho for the tying run.

After Kranick hit Holaday with a pitch and walked Madison Bumgarner to load the bases with no outs, Shelton pulled him for lefty reliever Austin Davis, who allowed four runs on two hits in two-thirds of an inning in blowing a four-run lead in Tuesday’s 11-6 loss.

Davis got Rojas to ground to second, where Adam Frazier threw it home for a forceout of Ahmed for the first out. But Davis walked Kole Calhoun to score Holaday for the go-ahead run. Escobar hit a dribbler that Davis bobbled, recovering in time to get Bumgarner out at home but not turn a double play. Peralta grounded out to third with the bases loaded to end the inning, or the damage could have been worse.

“Austin came in and holding ‘em to one there,” Stallings said, “was huge.”

Chris Stratton walked Smith to lead off the fifth and had runners on second and third after a double by Ahmed but escaped the jam by strking out Holaday and pinch hitter Josh Van Meter.

The Pirates’ top of the order got three consecutive singles off lefty Joe Mantiply, loading the bases with one out for John Nogowski. The Diamondbacks brought in reliever Brett de Geus (2-0), who walked Nogowski on four pitches to score Adam Frazier and tie it, 4-4.

But Stallings, who hit a walk-off grand slam in Saturday’s 9-7 comeback win over the New York Mets, grounded to short for an inning-ending double play to leave the game knotted.

“One thing I can’t do there is ground into a double play,” Stallings said. “Still did.”

The Diamondbacks made them pay in the bottom of the seventh when Smith smacked Underwood’s belt-high changeup 432 feet into the right-field seats for his ninth homer and the lead, and Varsho sent a 2-0 fastball down the middle 375 feet to right to make it 6-4.

“Yeah, it’s just been balls up in the zone. He left the changeup up to Smith, then the fastball right down the middle to Varsho,” Shelton said. “It’s just a matter of we’ve got to get the ball down, especially the changeup. He’s got a good changeup and we like it but if you execute it up in the zone, it’s going to get hit in the air – and, in this ballpark, it’s going to get hit up in the air and out of the ballpark.”