Arizona Diamondbacks' Miguel Montero (center) is greeted at home plate after hitting a three-run homer in the fifth inning Monday in Phoenix.
PHOENIX – After mustering two runs in a three-game trip to San Francisco, the Arizona Diamondbacks needed someone to lift them out of their hitting slump.
Enter Mark Reynolds and backup catcher Miguel Montero.
Reynolds homered and doubled and Montero hit a three-run homer to lead the Diamondbacks to a 6-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Monday night.
“One guy does it, the next guy does it, and the next thing you know the whole confidence in the dugout is up,” Reynolds said. “You start putting together some hits and score some runs, and I think if we do that a couple of days in a row, stuff will turn around.”
There are no must wins in April, but the Diamondbacks didn’t want to lose sight of the streaking Los Angeles Dodgers. The Diamondbacks entered 5 1/2 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West – their biggest deficit in the standings since Oct. 1, 2006, when they finished 12 games out of first.
The Diamondbacks find themselves in a hole because they’ve failed to take advantage of a favorable early schedule, with 18 of their first 21 games at Chase Field. The victory was Arizona’s fourth in 10 home games.
“It’s going to come around,” Arizona starter Jon Garland (2-1) said. “A team this good, you can’t keep us down too long.”
Arizona’s biggest problem has been at the plate. The Diamondbacks entered with a .215 team batting average, 15th in the National League, and they had more strikeouts (88) than base hits (83).
But with Chase Field’s roof open on a 92-degree night, the Diamondbacks’ bats came alive against Jason Marquis (2-1), who had allowed three earned runs in his first two starts.
Arizona took a 1-0 lead in the second when Reynolds hit a 2-0 delivery from Marquis into the left field bleachers.
The Rockies tied it at 1 on Dexter Fowler’s RBI single in the third.
Back-to-back doubles by Chad Tracy and Reynolds in the fourth put Arizona ahead 2-1, and the Diamondbacks blew the game open with four runs in the fifth, the last three coming on Montero’s first-pitch homer into the pool area.
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Up next
Colorado (Morales 1-0) at Arizona (Petit 0-1), 6:40 p.m. Tuesday. TV: FSNA. Radio: 1490 AM