Peralta, late-inning relief power Diamondbacks to series-opening win over Marlins

MIAMI — The pitching matchup screamed low-scoring game, so sure enough, that is exactly what did not take place Monday night.

Two of baseball's top pitchers in the first month of the season went head to head, and the Diamondbacks got the better of Major League Baseball's earned run average leader with a 5-4 win over right-hander Pablo Lopez and the Marlins at loanDepot Park.

Zac Gallen, in the first start of his career against his former team, the Marlins, held Miami scoreless until the seventh inning, when he hit the first two batters of the inning and both came around to score on a double from Jazz Chisholm Jr., a former top Diamondbacks prospect.

The two were traded for one another in 2019, and last April, Chisholm told a podcast featuring former big league CC Sabathia that he looked forward to facing Gallen because he wanted to homer off of him. Chisholm was injured last May when the Diamondbacks and Marlins played two series against each other.

Gallen didn't forget that comment and drew motivation from it.

"He made some comments last year. So I've been sitting on that for about a year now," Gallen said. "It worked out in our favor and we won the game, that's the most important thing.

"I'm not scared of anybody. Here it is, hit it. Hit it."

Gallen (1-0) came into the seventh with the Diamondbacks leading 5-0. His final line was 6 ⅓ innings, two earned runs allowed on five hits and five strikeouts on 102 pitches.

SCOREBOARD | STANDINGS | INJURIES

Noé Ramirez entered for Gallen and got one out before Chisholm lined a 2-2 pitch to right field for a double. Then Jesús Aguilar hit a ball deep in the hole at shortstop for a single, and two runs scored on the play before a third out came.

The Diamondbacks hung on, though, with a 1-2-3 eighth inning from Joe Mantiply and a scoreless ninth from temporary closer Ian Kennedy, who got Jon Berti to pop out to end the game for his second save.

Kennedy's time as closer might be ending soon, however. Mark Melancon, who's been in COVID protocol, appears to be nearing a return.

The Marlins left runners on first and second to end the game.

David Peralta's two-run home run in the first inning off of Lopez came with Daulton Varsho on base after a double to leadoff the game. Peralta finished with three hits and three runs batted in, and Varsho scored a key insurance run in the top of the fifth when he took third base on a Lopez throwing error and scored on a single by Jordan Luplow.

"The catcher was setting up a little bit out and up. He made a mistake and I hit it," Peralta said. "It kind of set the tone at the beginning of the game."

The Diamondbacks (11-13) scored twice in the fifth on their way to their fifth win in the past seven. Luplow had two hits and drove in Arizona's fifth run in the seventh inning with a single, and has five RBI on the current road trip.

"We did so many things well. But David did a really nice job getting us on board," Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. "Three batters in against a very, very tough pitcher."

Gallen ran into some trouble in the bottom of the fifth, giving up back-to-back singles with one out. Jacob Stallings then hit a line drive to Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker, who caught the ball on the fly and fired to second base for a force out and double play.

The Marlins challenged the out call at second base, but it was upheld upon review.

Lopez led the majors with a 0.39 ERA prior to the game. He had given up just one run in 23 ⅓ innings.

"I knew Pablo was going to go out there and same thing ,give his team a chance to win," Gallen said. "Pablo's got some great stuff, he's very underrated. So yeah, I knew I was gonna have to up my A-game,"

Nick Ahmed, who came in with three home runs in his last four games, just missed four in five games with a long fly ball to the left field wall in the top of the sixth.

Get in touch with Jose Romero at Jose.Romero@gannett.com. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Peralta, late-inning relief power Diamondbacks to series-opening win over Marlins