WEST SACRAMENTO -- For the second straight day, the Diamondbacks clubhouse postgame sounded like a concert, as Bad Bunny blared over the loudspeakers.
It was literally and figuratively music to manager Torey Lovullo’s ears.
“They deserve that,” Lovullo said with a grin. “They’ve been fighting hard. That was great. It was a total team contribution. ”
That fight wasn’t resulting in many wins until Arizona flipped the script and beat the A’s on Saturday to end a six-game losing streak.
Doubling down on Sunday, the Diamondbacks made it two in a row.
Blaze Alexander homered for the first time this season and Alek Thomas continued his recent surge at the plate with three hits as the Diamondbacks beat the Athletics, 6-4, on Sunday afternoon at Sutter Health Park.
“These guys deserve to have a good feeling,” said Lovullo following Arizona’s first series win since July 18-20 in St. Louis. “We came up here from Detroit and we were a little upset with what happened [a three-game sweep], so yeah, we’re going to try to build some positives from anything that we possibly can.”
Sunday’s game could be a foundation that the D-backs can build off of.
Eduardo Rodriguez allowed two runs and six hits over five innings. The lefty had five strikeouts and three walks. On offense, Tyler Locklear reached base three times and Geraldo Perdomo added three hits to help the Diamondbacks win their third consecutive series over the A’s.
Arizona scored three runs in the second inning, added another in the third on Thomas’ RBI single then pulled away on Alexander’s solo homer in the seventh inning. Alexander also had an RBI single in the ninth.
The offensive production was magnified considering slugger Ketel Marte was given the day off for rest by Lovullo.
It was a solid series all around for Thomas, who is now slashing .340/.380/.582 (.962 OPS) in his last 15 games. He had seven hits in 11 at-bats with one home run in the three-game set vs. the A’s.
Locklear also came through with a big afternoon in only his second game of the season. The 24-year-old first baseman had spent all season in the Minors before being dealt to the Diamondbacks as part of the Eugenio Suarez trade with Seattle.
“I thought it was a good moment for him,” Lovullo said. “He’s going to be fine. He’s just making his way and getting his footing right now. One brick at a time. He’s going to be fine for us.”
Rodriguez (4-7), following the pattern set by Zac Gallen a day earlier, pitched in and out of trouble but limited the damage to earn his first win since late June.
“The only thing I can control is throw[ing] the pitch where I want it,” Rodriguez said. “Ninety percent of the time, if you execute the pitch, something good’s going to happen. The other 10 percent, ground ball, base hit or jammed blooper. When you’ve got men on base, you have to execute more.”
Lovullo credited Rodriguez for staying engaged in the tight situations he faced.
“Eddie’s so good at pounding the zone, making adjustments,” Lovullo said. “I just think he fatigued there a little bit. He’s probably mad at me that I took him out of the game but the bottom line is he did his job.”
The Diamondbacks (53-59) also got another strong showing from the bullpen. John Curtiss, Andrew Saalfrank and Kendall Graveman each retired three batters. Kyle Nelson allowed a home run to JJ Bleday in the ninth before closing out the frame to record his first career save.
It all added up to a win that helped ease the sting from the Trade Deadline when the Diamondbacks traded away several core players in exchange for pitching prospects.
“We feel like we’ve turned the page already,” Rodriguez said. “It hurts that we [had] to say bye to good teammates. Right now, we just want to play with what we got and go out there and win.”