'I never give up': Suárez eager to put '24 struggles behind him

PHOENIX -- Eugenio Suárez’s bat is heating up, and the timing couldn’t be better.

Suárez finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored, Ketel Marte added his 18th homer and the Diamondbacks scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth en route to a 7-5 win over the Braves at Chase Field on Wednesday.

Paul Sewald closed out the ninth to earn his 12th save of the season, breaking a string of three consecutive blown saves.

“This was a good gut-check win,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “I’m really proud of this team.”

Suárez is starting to bounce back after starting the year hitting just .205 over 88 games. He now has two home runs and five hits over his last four games, a span in which he has hit .313 (5-for-16).

“I never give up, I do my best every day and come here with the same energy,” Suárez said. “Be positive every time and the results are going to be there by just working hard and never giving up.”

That mentality helped him in a big way on Wednesday. After the Braves jumped ahead, 2-0, in the second, Suárez took charge in the bottom half of the inning, launching a 3-2 curveball a Statcast-projected 452-foot blast to left field that tied the game. The blast made him the third D-backs player this season to hit a home run over 450 feet, along with Marte and Christian Walker (twice).

He said he suspected he would see a second consecutive curveball, and promptly capitalized on his opportunity.

“I was ready for that one,” Suárez said. “I knew it right away. I knew it was out.”

His resurgence comes as no surprise to Lovullo, who said the 32-year-old has done everything asked of him as he worked to regain his form throughout the season.

The timing of his suddenly hot bat doesn’t seem to shock Lovullo, either.

“The late July, August and September swings have been his best months, and he’s been very true to that form,” Lovullo said. “We know that he can carry a huge workload defensively and we know that he can turn the game around with one swing of the bat.”

It wasn’t just Suárez’s performance that shined on Wednesday, though, especially after Atlanta regained the lead with a run in the top of the third. Marte responded by launching a no-doubter of his own to even the score in the bottom half of the inning -- a projected 444-foot blast -- and the All-Star second baseman is now just seven homers shy of matching his mark from last year.

Suárez wasn’t quite finished either, recording an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh to temporarily give the D-backs a 4-3 lead.

“[Braves reliever Pierce Johnson] threw me three breaking balls in a row,” Suárez said. “I put my best on that one, too. It was a real good pitch, down and away, and I was able to pull that one down the line.”

The back-and-forth game culminated with a perfect ninth inning from Sewald, who has battled through adversity of his own after blowing each of his previous three save attempts. Even so, the closer said he wasn’t fazed, and tuned out any noise heading into Wednesday’s game.

“I didn’t make the first three a bigger deal than they were, and I’m not going to make this one a bigger deal than it is,” Sewald said. “It’s just one. I hope I get another chance tomorrow, and we can split the series.”

Lovullo agreed.

“It was nice to see Paul get back in the saddle, execute a good game plan, and get back with a save,” he said.

Arizona has a chance to split its current four-game series against the Braves, a team it had yet to beat this season prior to Wednesday’s triumph. No matter the result, though, Suárez will continue to stick to what has made him a successful Major League player throughout the years.

The results will follow, as he has already shown.

“It’s something that I’ve been working hard in all my years,” Suárez said. “It’s something that’s important to me. Stay calm every day, believe in myself, believe in working hard, don’t chase results, and come here and enjoy the game.”