PHOENIX _ After R.A. Dickey gave up four runs without making it out of the fourth inning in the knuckleballer's shortest start of the season, Sean Rodriguez gave the Atlanta Braves a chance in the fifth with a long two-run pinch-hit homer to cut Arizona's lead in half.
But their comeback hopes evaporated in a barrage of extra-base hits off Matt Wisler to start Arizona's sixth inning, including a mammoth three-run homer from Diamondbacks newcomer J.D. Martinez to open a six-run lead en route to a 10-2 rout against the Braves in a series opener at Chase Field.
Ian Krol also gave up a two-run homer to A.J. Pollock in the seventh inning as the good vibe the Braves had during a four-game split of the Los Angeles Dodgers in which they outscored the team with the majors' best record by a 24-17 margin on the road, came to a screeching halt. Bad pitching will do that, and the Braves had plenty of it Monday.
Dickey gave up five hits, four runs and five walks with four wild pitches in 3 2/3 innings, tied for the most wild pitches by any major leaguer in a game this season. He put the Braves in a hole right away with a three-run second inning that included a leadoff walk and three hits including an RBI double from pitcher Zack Greinke and a two-run double from Pollock.
Greinke (12-4) limited the Braves to two runs, five hits and no walks in eight innings, improving to 10-0 in 12 starts at Chase Field. He's the first National League pitcher to win 10 consecutive home decisions to start a season since Greinke himself went 11-0 at home to start the 2011 season with Milwaukee.
Greinke also improved to 11-1 this season when he gets three or more support runs and to 143-16 in his career in those situations.
Wisler arrived from Triple-A earlier Monday to temporarily fill the roster spot of starting pitcher Jaime Garcia, who was traded to the Twins. But in the stadium where he had one of the best nights of his life 11 months ago _ eight innings with two hits and one run allowed in a start against Arizona _ Wisler this time continued to struggle as he has for much of the season
The Diamondbacks pushed the lead to 4-0 with a run in the fourth off Dickey after a leadoff single, a Greinke sacrifice, a wild pitch and a David Peralta RBI single. The damage for Dickey could've been far worse after he walked Jake Lamb and Paul Goldschmidt consecutively to load the bases with two out in the fourth, but reliever Akeel Morris entered and struck out Martinez.
The home run from Rodriguez was the most encouraging aspect of the game for the Braves. The versatile veteran came back a couple of months sooner than most thought possible from February shoulder surgery, but he'd been 1-for-14 in his first six games (four starts) since coming off the disabled list before Monday.
Rodriguez said this weekend in Los Angeles that he felt healthy and that his swing was coming together, and then he demonstrated by hitting a 428-foot homer off Greinke in a 2-2 slider with two out in the fifth inning. The third pinch-hit homer of his career and his first homer as a Brave cut the lead to 4-2.
But it didn't stay there for long. Wisler worked around a leadoff single and one-out walk in his first inning in the fifth, but saw things implode in the next inning when he gave up a leadoff double to Pollock, a walk to Lamb and an RBI double to Goldschmidt. He still hadn't recorded an out in the inning when Martinez hit a towering home run to center field, his 17th of the season and first since being traded to Arizona last week.
Dickey had not pitched fewer than five innings this season and had lasted at least six innings in his past six starts before his exit with two out in the fourth inning Monday. He was 2-0 with a 1.09 ERA and .214 opponents' average in five starts from June 19 through July 14, giving up one or no runs in each of those games while lasting at least six innings every time out. The Braves won four of the five games.
But he's given up four runs in each of his past two starts, along with 12 hits and seven walks in 10 2/3 total innings. The Braves lost both of those games.
After giving up one run, eight hits and two walks in six innings of a win against Arizona on July 14 at SunTrust Park, Dickey didn't have the same effective knuckleball against the Diamondbacks indoors at Chase Field.
Besides Rodriguez's home run, the hardest-hit ball for the Braves was Freddie Freeman's 420-foot line-drive double in the fourth inning, which would've been a home run in most if not all major league parks. It was one of the quirkiest doubles imaginable, crashing off a narrow vertical painted-yellow line just below a second-story concourse, a line that separates the batter's eye backdrop from a seating section to its left.
It would've been Freeman's ninth home run in 20 career games at Chase Field. Instead it was his ninth double at the ballpark, where he had a .388 career average and 1.232 OPS before Monday.
