Pederson hits early homer, Diamondbacks blank Brewers

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Joc Pederson, Jose Herrera and Ketel Marte homered, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-0 on Saturday night to maintain their position in the NL wild-card standings.

Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly (5-0) struck out six while pitching five innings of two-hit ball. He threw 72 pitches, 48 for strikes, before departing because of a cramp in his right calf.

“I made the decision to take him out of the game,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “He was trying to push to stay in it but I told him he had done his job and we had plenty of coverage in the bullpen. I don’t want to risk this. If we’re going where we want to go, he’s got a lot more baseball to play.”

Arizona (87-68) earned its fourth consecutive win. It stayed one game ahead of the New York Mets for the second NL wild card.

“We’re a good team and we’re peaking at the right time,” Lovullo said.

Pederson’s 23rd homer, a two-run shot off Aaron Civale (7-9), staked Kelly to a 2-0 lead in the first.

Herrera hit a one-out drive to right in the fifth for his first career homer in his 129th major league game. He nearly added a second homer in the sixth, driving a 3-2 curveball from Trevor Megill 356 feet to the warning track in right.

“It was a special moment,” Herrera said. “I knew it had a pretty good chance. I hit it well.”

That was more than enough for Kelly, who struck out five of his last six batters — including three straight in the fifth.

It was Kelly's eighth start since he returned Aug. 11 after being sidelined for nearly four months with a right shoulder strain.

“That was probably the best I felt since I’ve been back,” Kelly said. “Location-wise, action-wise, plan; I felt really good going into today and my body felt really good.”

Marte provided a pair of insurance runs with a two-run shot for his 34th homer in the ninth against Joe Ross.

Civale was charged with three runs and three hits in 4 1/3 innings for the NL Central champions.

Milwaukee (88-67) failed to put a runner on base against Arizona’s bullpen. It struck out seven more times over the final four innings.

“We didn’t execute officially,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who was ejected in the bottom of the fifth inning by umpire Chris Segal for arguing balls and strikes. “We didn’t have a great day offensively but that’s gonna happen in baseball against really good pitching.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Diamondbacks: RHP Paul Sewald (left neck discomfort) will throw a bullpen session Monday as he tries to return to action before the end of the regular season.

Brewers: C William Contreras has been dealing with a sore finger and hip and was held out of the lineup. ... RHP Nick Mears will throw a simulated game Monday.

UP NEXT

RHP Frankie Montas (7-11, 4.50 ERA) gets the start Sunday when the Brewers try to avoid a series sweep and it’s first four-game losing streak of the season against Arizona LHP Jordan Montgomery (8-7, 6.23 ERA).

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB