PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Diamondbacks are playing downhill baseball and moving up the standings.Nick Ahmed homered twice and had four RBIs Chipper Jones Jersey , Steven Souza Jr. drove in three more runs and the Diamondbacks jumped on the San Francisco Giants early for a 9-3 victory on Saturday night.“Just momentum, you score first in the game — I don’t know what the percentages are — but you have much higher likelihood to win the game,” Ahmed said. “We just try to jump out, attack early and have been doing a good job of that lately.”Souza hit a two-run triple and Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer off Andrew Suarez (4-7) in Arizona’s second-straight five-run first inning against the Giants. Arizona leads the majors with 92 first-inning runs and moved a game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West after winning for the third time in four games.Ahmed had run-scoring single in the first, a two-run homer in the fifth and a solo shot in the eighth.“When I talk about downhill baseball, we eliminate a lot of the noise and go out there and play the game the way we know how,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.Steven Duggar hit his first career home run and Andrew McCutchen had a solo shot for the only runs off Clay Buchholz (5-1), who won his fourth straight start. Buchholz struck out Evan Longoria with runners on second and third in the fourth inning, then put the Giants down in order the next two innings.McCutchen had five hits and two RBIs from the leadoff spot.“The leadoff hitter gets five hits, a home run, RBI double and you think we are in the game, but unfortunately we weren’t http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-john-smoltz-jersey ,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.The Diamondbacks jumped on starter Chris Stratton for five runs in the first inning of Friday’s win and did the same against Suarez.Souza had a two-run triple and Ahmed followed with a run-scoring single. Marte made it 2-0 with a no-doubt two-run homer to center, his 10th of the season. Marte joins Stephen Drew (three times), Steve Finley (twice) and David Peralta as the only Arizona players with 10 homers and 10 triples in a season.Souza had a run-scoring double that just missed going out in center in the fifth inning. Ahmed followed with a shot to left that did clear the wall for a two-run homer to put Arizona up 8-2.Suarez allowed eight runs on 10 hits in five innings.“I fell behind in the count, they took advantage of it,” Suarez said. “I had some good pitches and they hit them.”Buchholz was sharp except for a couple of breaking balls: One that McCutchen hit for a solo homer in the third inning, another Duggar hit for a solo shot in the fourth.Buchholz allowed two runs on seven hits in six innings.AHMED’S RISEAhmed was known mostly for his glove his first four big-league seasons, hitting no more than nine homers and a career-best of 34 RBIs.The 28-year-old shortstop has found his grove at the plate this season with 16 homers and 57 RBIs. His 16 homers are third in Diamondbacks history by a shortstop, behind Stephen Drew’s 21 in 2008 and Jay Bell’s 18 in 1998.“I feel like he was never satisfied with just being a great defender who was going to put the bat on the ball,” Lovullo said. “He wanted to excel in both areas. He has a really good mindset that he wants to be great. I think that motivates him every day.”GIANTS MOVESSan Francisco recalled RHPs Derek Law and Pierce Johnson from Triple-A Sacramento prior to Saturday’s game, and optioned Stratton and infielder Kelby Tomlinson to the River Cats. Stratton struggled against the Diamondbacks on Friday, allowing six runs on 10 hits in three innings of a 6-3 loss.TRAINER’S TABLEGiants: C Buster Posey was held out of the lineup under concussion protocol after leaving Friday’s game due to a foul ball off his mask. He worked in the field before Saturday’s game and could play Sunday if he remains symptom free.Diamondbacks: Lovullo returned to the dugout after missing Friday’s game due to an illness.UP NEXTArizona LHP Robbie Ray is 4-1 with a 2.84 ERA in 10 career starts against the Giants heading into Sunday’s season finale. Giants starter Derek Holland is 0-1 with a 4.61 ERA in three career starts against the Diamondbacks. If the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to win an unprecedented sixth consecutive National League West title, they are going to have to go an extra day in the season to do it.The Dodgers will play host to the Colorado Rockies on Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium Matt Kemp Jersey , with first place in the division at stake during game No. 163. Both teams finished the 162-game schedule with matching 91-71 records.The last time a team other than the Dodgers won the NL West was in 2012 when the San Francisco Giants were champs. Even though the Rockies were NL champions in 2007, they have never won an NL West title.Article continues below ...Monday’s game, between teams with red-hot offenses, will not necessarily be a winner-take-all affair. While the winner does advance directly to Thursday’s NL Division Series, the loser still will live to see another day in Tuesday’s NL wild-card game.Tasked with holding back all that offensive potential on Monday will be two young right-handers. The Rockies’ German Marquez (14-10, 3.75 ERA) will square off against Dodgers rookie Walker Buehler (7-5, 2.76).The preview to Monday’s game in Los Angeles was not necessarily a three-game series between the teams two weeks ago when the Dodgers swept the Rockies. A more specific preview happened May 21, when the teams played at Dodger Stadium.Marquez and Buehler put on a show that day that was worthy of a playoff game. They had nearly identical lines, with both giving up one run and two hits in seven innings. Buehler’s six strikeouts were one more than Marquez.The Rockies ended up winning that game 2-1 on Carlos Gomez’s RBI infield single. It was the first time the Dodgers and Rockies had faced each other this season.That May 21 game also showed the resiliency of Buehler, who was hit in the back of the ribs by a 108 mph Trevor Story comebacker. He still pitched two more innings in the game and even made three more starts before going on the disabled list with a microfracture in his rib cage.Buehler essentially missed the next five weeks, but as of July 31, he has posted a 1.70 ERA in his last 11 starts. In one of those http://www.bravesfanproshop.com/authentic-hank-aaron-jersey , on Sept. 19, he struck out a career-high 12 Rockies batters.He has been so steady to close out the season that the Dodgers even positioned Buehler to start Monday, if necessary, after they clinched a playoff spot Saturday. Buehler has a 2.61 ERA and a 0.97 WHIP in five starts against the Rockies this season.“It would be huge,” Buehler said about potentially pitching the Dodgers to another division title. “That’s the goal. It’s a long time from when we set that goal to now. It kind of all culminated, but at the same time it’s still a regular-season game, and is Game 163, which was odd, but we don’t go home if we lose and get a day off if we win.”Marquez enters on as impressive of a run as Buehler. In Marquez’s last 12 starts, dating to July 29, he is 6-2 with a 2.16 ERA. Although none of those outings were against the Dodgers, he was 2-0 in three starts against Los Angeles with a 2.57 ERA in 21 innings.Offensively Deion Sanders Jersey , David Dahl has a home run in six of his last seven games, and Charlie Blackmon hit for the cycle on Sunday, the only major league cycle this season and the ninth in Rockies history.“It seems like we’ll have a tough series or whatever, a tough stretch, and we’ll always come back stronger,” the Rockies’ DJ LeMahieu said, according to the Denver Post. “That’s how it’s been all year. This is a group of winners, honestly, it’s a group of winners that keeps coming back. When our back’s against the wall, we play our best. I don’t expect that to change.”
