Eugenio Suarez had his second consecutive two-homer game, Merrill Kelly pitched six strong innings and the Arizona Diamondbacks completed a three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals with a 5-3 victory in Phoenix on Sunday afternoon.
Suarez hit a three-run homer as part of a four-run first inning and added a solo home run in the third to increase his NL-leading total to 35, one more than the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani.
Suarez, who leads the majors with 85 RBIs, has three two-homer outings over the last six games and six this season. He became the 19th player in major league history with a four-homer game against Atlanta on April 26.
Since June 1, Suarez’s 20 homers are the most in the majors.
Kelly (9-5) gave up three hits and two runs in six innings, striking out five and walking four in the Diamondbacks’ fourth straight win.
Anthony DeSclafani gave up a ninth-inning run in a three-inning save.
Corbin Carroll had two hits including his MLB-leading 13th triple in a four-run first for the Diamondbacks, who outscored the Cardinals 16-1 in the first three innings of the three games.
Ivan Herrera had an RBI single and Jordan Walker added an RBI-double with two outs in the ninth for the Cardinals, who have lost 11 of 15.
Miles Mikolas (5-7) gave up five runs on four hits, including both Suarez homers, in four innings with three strikeouts and two walks. He has given up eight homers in his last three starts.
The Diamondbacks started early for the third time in the series. Carroll tripled to open the first and scored on Geraldo Perdomo’s one-out fielder’s choice grounder, when second baseman Brendan Donovan threw late to the plate.
After Josh Naylor walked, Suarez hit a 425-foot homer to left.
Scott doubled and scored on Herrera’s single in the third to make it 4-1 before Suarez homered off the top of the left-field fence with two outs in the home half of the inning.
Kelly walked the first three in the fifth, but he got out of the inning with two groundouts and a strikeout as the Cardinals managed only one run to cut the deficit to 5-2.
