D-backs complete walk-off sweep of Orioles
By BOB BAUM
AP Sports Writer
PHOENIX
-- Arizona did it again. Not a walk-off home run this time. A game-ending base hit did just fine.
The result was another excruciating loss for Baltimore in the desert.
Aaron Hill singled with one out in the bottom of the 14th inning on Wednesday to give the Diamondbacks their third straight walk-off win over the Orioles, 5-4.
"These last three days have been a lot of fun," Hill said.
Not for the visitors. Baltimore led all three games entering the seventh.
"It was a tough series," said Orioles starter Chris Tillman, thwarted in his bid for a 15th victory. "There's nothing you can do about it now. You've got to look forward to the next one at home."
Hill forced extra innings with an RBI single in the ninth off Jim Johnson in the Orioles closer's ninth blown save of the season and second in as many days.
Bud Norris (8-10), who started and threw five innings in San Francisco on Sunday, came on in the 14th and walked two batters ahead of Hill's single to take the loss.
Heath Bell (4-1) threw an inning to get the victory.
Hill followed Adam Eaton and Paul Goldschmidt as the Arizona last-inning stars.
Eaton's home run in the ninth gave Arizona the victory in the opener, then Goldschmidt homered in the ninth to tie it and hit another in the 11th to win it on Tuesday night.
Hill's game-winning single was the only hit in the five extra innings for the Diamondbacks, who finished the homestand 6-2. Baltimore went 4-4 in an eight-game trip to three NL West cities.
Norris, the Orioles' eighth pitcher, walked Parra and Martin Prado on four pitches apiece to start the 14th. He struck out Goldschmidt, and Hill joked about the reaction from the stands.
"The crowd was like `Oh, man,'" Hill said, "but he's done it enough this year. It's time for someone else, right?"
Hill's single just got through the infield as Gerardo Parra raced home with the winner. As was the case the previous two nights, the players doused the hero with water, dirt and who knows what else.
"I don't understand the dirt bath thing, I really don't," Hill said. "The dirt, the rosin bag, the spit, whatever else comes at you, I don't know where that came from. But hey, if it means we win a ballgame, I'll take it every time."
Norris refused to talk to reporters afterward. He had skipped his scheduled bullpen session Wednesday to be ready if he was needed should the game go extra innings after the 11-inning affair on Tuesday night.
"We knew he was going to be able to throw a couple of innings for us," manager Buck Showalter said. "He throws more pitches on his work day, which would have been today, than he did in the game."
Showalter refused to criticize Johnson, who leads the majors with 39 saves.
"The world's full of those guys who come in after the war's over and shoot the wounded. I'm not one of those guys," he said. "I'll leave that to the guys who are outside the arena."
Showalter got the inevitable question about sticking with Johnson as closer.
"Am I going to sit Adam Jones because he had a rough day today?" he said. "I as a manager can't live in that world. We've got a lot of pieces in the chain that have to work and every club does. And I'll be the first guy to make adjustments if they need to be made, but there's a lot of things that we've got to shore up besides that."
The Orioles loaded the bases with one out in the 10th but Brad Ziegler induced Nate McLouth into a double-play grounder to second.
Baltimore took a 4-2 lead into the seventh on Monday and a 3-0 lead after six on Tuesday. The Orioles were up 4-2 again when Tillman left the game entering the seventh.
Arizona got a run in the seventh on Prado's RBI single, then threatened but failed to score in the eighth.
Parra, who tripled in a run in the second, doubled to left off Johnson to start the ninth. Prado's bunt failed to advance the runner, then after a quick trip to the mound by manager Buck Showalter, Goldschmidt was walked intentionally.
That brought up Hill, who singled sharply to left on the first pitch to tie it. Goldschmidt moved to third on the play but was stranded when Matt Davidson struck out and Tuffy Gosewisch grounded to short.
All four Baltimore runs came with two outs against Patrick Corbin in the second, two of them on Manny Machado's home run.
Corbin failed for the fourth time in his bid for a 13th victory. He went seven innings, giving up four runs on nine hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.
NOTES: When they recalled Campana, the Diamondbacks optioned LHP Tyler Skaggs to Triple-A Reno. Skaggs had been with the team for a couple of days as a long-inning relief option in his latest in a series of stints with the big league club. ... Three pitchers were used as pinch hitters, Randall Delgado and Wade Miley for Arizona, Scott Feldman for Baltimore. ... The Orioles return home for a three-game interleague series with Colorado, sending LHP Wei-Yin Chen (6-5, 3.06 ERA) to the mound against the Rockies' RHP Juan Nicasio (6-6, 5.04) in the opener Friday night. ... Arizona leaves on a 10-game road trip, beginning with a three-game series in Pittsburgh. RHP Brandon McCarthy (2-6, 4.73) goes for the Diamondbacks in Friday's opener with RHP Gerrit Cole (5-5, 3.95) starting for the Pirates.