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Salazar's pinch-hit homer lifts D-Backs
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Arizona Diamondbacks\' Jeff Salazar swings for a three-run go-ahead home run hit off San Francisco Giants\' Brad Hennessey during the ninth inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 10, 2007, in San Francisco. Arizona won 5-3.
The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO - When Jeff Salazar pulled himself from the starting lineup because of a balky left ankle, he said he felt he was letting the Diamondbacks down.
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Turns out he was merely setting them up for another postgame celebration.
Down to their final out, the D-Backs turned to pinch-hitter Salazar, whose two-out, three-run home run in the top of the ninth inning beat San Francisco, 5-3, for their sixth consecutive victory.
The D-Backs (82-63) are a season-high 19 games over .500 and have come from behind in each of their last five games, overcoming deficits of 1, 2, 4, 2 and now 3 runs.
They have 37 come-frombehind victories and lead the NL West by 3 1/2 games.
“That’s how we play,” Arizona manager Bob Melvin said.
Salazar, his left ankle was bruised and extremely swollen after he ran into the Chase Field fence chasing an Albert Pujols triple Saturday, told Melvin an hour before the game he did not feel comfortable defensively in the quirky right field at AT&T Park.
“He apologized to me,” Melvin said.
“Eighty or ninety percent of me is not as good as 100 percent of Justin Upton or Carlos Quentin,” Salazar said.
“I couldn’t be selfish. But when I took batting practice, I felt fine hitting.”
Salazar’s homer was his first of the season and the second of his career. Both have come as a pinch-hitter, and both were against the Giants.
It was the D-Backs’ 12th pinch-hit homer of the season.
Second baseman Emilio Bonifacio, making his first major league start, had two run-scoring singles for the DBacks, who trailed, 3-2, before Stephen Drew doubled to open the ninth.
Two outs later, Justin Upton walked on a 3-2 pitch to bring up Salazar, who homered on a 2-0 fastball from Brad Hennessey.
“It’s not me,” Salazar said.
“It’s us.”
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