Lamet fans 8 in another stellar start vs. AZ

Dinelson Lamet made his best pitch, and the D-backs beat him on it.

Arizona spoiled another strong outing by the Padres starter with a 5-1 victory Friday at Chase Field. Lamet, who was facing the D-backs for the third time this season, allowed one run and struck out eight in six innings.

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Six of Lamet's eight strikeouts came via his slider, which he threw 42 times in the 81-pitch outing.

But in the sixth, Kole Calhoun stung the right-handed Lamet for a leadoff home run on an 85.4 mph slider near the middle of the plate, which put Arizona ahead, 1-0. Calhoun had swung and missed on an 84.6 mph slider out of the strike zone on the previous pitch.

“I don’t think it was a mistake, I think he was able to make a really good adjustment,” Lamet said. “I wasn’t mad about having thrown the pitch the way I threw it.”

Lamet also gave up a homer to Calhoun this past Sunday in San Diego, when he tossed 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball and took a no-hitter into the seventh in a win over the D-backs.

Other than his lone blemish, Lamet excelled Friday with a steady dose of fastballs and sliders, which he used to sit down the first six D-backs hitters he faced. He walked D-backs third baseman Andy Young on four pitches to lead off the fourth, then responded by retiring the next five batters in order.

Perhaps it was familiarity, or maybe it was just good hitting, but David Peralta’s two-out infield single in the fourth came on an 85.5 mph slider, Lamet’s favorite pitch all season. It was only the second hit he had allowed in his last 10 innings. In the fifth, he worked around a two-out bunt single by Daulton Varsho that came on a 96.7 mph four-seam fastball.

The Padres didn't score a run until the ninth inning, when Jake Cronenworth had a one-out RBI single. But a bigger concern came a half-inning earlier, when right-hander Kirby Yates exited with right elbow discomfort, which will require him to undergo an MRI.

After Yates' departure, Arizona rallied for four runs against San Diego's bullpen, putting the game out of reach.

Yates’ injury and the loss overshadowed another stellar outing for Lamet against the D-backs. He has limited Arizona to three runs in 17 2/3 innings this season.

“Some of these hitters have probably had nine at-bats against me,” Lamet said. “But there was never a moment in the game where you saw a bunch of hard contact or a few at-bats where you could say, ‘OK, yeah, they've turned the tables and now they're sort of pushing back or dominating against me.’ I was able to keep my cool and continue my success.”