SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - A.J. Pollock drove in two runs with his second triple of spring training, and the Arizona Diamondbacks tied the San Diego Padres 2-2 in 10 innings Sunday.
With two outs in the second, San Diego starter Eric Stults gave up a double to Tuffy Gosewisch and a single to Diamondbacks pitcher Bo Schultz. Pollock followed with a triple to deep right-center on an 0-2 pitch.
Stults allowed two runs and five hits in 3 1-3 innings. Schultz gave up an unearned run and three hits in three innings.
San Diego scored in the first after right fielder Gerardo Parra, a two-time Gold Glove winner, dropped Alexi Amarista’s leadoff fly ball for a two-base error. Amarista scored on Jedd Gyorko’s single.
The Diamondbacks were so satisfied with Pollock’s performance in center field last season that they traded Adam Eaton to the Chicago White Sox as part of a three-team deal that landed slugger Mark Trumbo from the Los Angeles Angels.
Pollock is hitting .400 this spring, but he downplayed any significance to that.
“Numbers mean absolutely nothing to me right now,” Pollock said. “I’m just trying to work on stuff. Obviously results are great, but it doesn’t translate.”
The Diamondbacks enter their final week of preparation before leaving next Sunday for Australia, where they will open the season with a two-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on March 22-23.
STARTING TIME
Padres: Stults has given up eight runs and 11 hits in 6 1-3 innings this spring, but was effective Sunday other than his two-out troubles in the second. He walked one with no strikeouts.
“Stultsy’s stuff played to his norm,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “He’s still not as sharp as we’re going to see him once we get into the season. He threw a couple of curveballs today so he’s started mixing that in a little bit more. The backbreaker was the 0-2 curveball he threw to Pollock, which he’d like to have back.”
Diamondbacks: Schultz, expected to start the season at Triple-A Reno, struck out three with no walks. In two starts this spring, he has not allowed an earned run in five innings.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: OF Cameron Maybin decided not to have surgery to repair a ruptured left biceps tendon. GM Josh Byrnes says that instead Maybin might be ready in four to six weeks after giving the injury time to heal and undergoing rehab. Maybin missed nearly all of last season with a torn right knee ligament and surgery on his right wrist.
Diamondbacks: After getting an epidural injection for his sore back, RHP Bronson Arroyo played long toss Saturday and Sunday. He expects to be pitching again when the team returns from Australia. … OF Cody Ross, coming back from hip surgery, played in a minor league game.
FIRST CHALLENGE
Arizona manager Kirk Gibson used his first challenge of the spring. In the first inning, Paul Goldschmidt grounded sharply off the glove of 1B Tommy Medica. Medica threw to Stults covering the bag, and Goldschmidt was called out on a close play. Gibson challenged, and the call was upheld after video review. Black made his first challenge of the spring in the eighth, when Chris Owings reached after a passed-ball strikeout on a close play at first. It too was upheld.
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