PHOENIX — Chris Young had three hits including his team-best fifth home run and Joe Saunders pitched seven strong innings to help lead the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday night.
Saunders (1-0) allowed a run on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
Aaron Hill and Gerardo Parra also homered for the Diamondbacks, who have won two straight. Arizona is 25-4 in its last 29 home games.
Neil Walker drove in the run for the Pirates, who have lost six of seven. Pittsburgh has scored two runs or fewer in seven of 10 games this season.
Pirates starter Erik Bedard (0-3) scattered three hits over five innings but walked four, the final two of which helped the Diamondbacks take the lead in the fourth.
Paul Goldschmidt took ball four with two outs and went to second on a passed ball. Bedard then walked Jason Kubel and Ryan Roberts followed with a line single to right, scoring Goldschmidt to make it 2-1.
Bedard had walked only two batters in his first two starts spanning 12 innings.
Young made it 4-1 in the sixth, lining a home run just over the 376-foot sign in left off Evan Meek after Miguel Montero had led off the inning with a bloop single to center.
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead in the first with a two-out rally. Andrew McCutchen hit a broken-bat single to left and stole second. Casey McGehee legged out an infield hit to deep short before Walker lined a single to center, scoring McCutcheon.
Hill tied the game in the bottom of the first with a one-out homer just over the Diamondbacks’ left-field bullpen.
Parra hit his first career pinch-hit home run into the swimming pool beyond the right-field fence on Chris Resop’s first pitch in the seventh to give the Diamondbacks a 5-1 lead.
NOTES: Saunders passed the 1,000 career inning mark in the seventh. . Arizona has scored in the first inning in eight of 10 games this season. . McCutchen is 3-for-5 on stolen base attempts. . Diamondbacks RHP Takashi Saito, who is on the 15-day DL with a strained right calf, allowed two runs on two hits while throwing 16 pitches in an extended spring game Monday morning. . Hill’s home run was the Diamondbacks’ fifth first-inning homer. Arizona has hit 14 overall. . Hill hit eight home runs in 2011 for Arizona and Toronto. . Parra’s homer was the 42nd to land in the swimming pool in Chase Field’s 15-season history. . Diamondbacks RHP Ian Kennedy will look for his third straight win to start the season on Tuesday when he faces Pittsburgh RHP Jeff Karstens. . The Pirates have yet to face consecutive same-handed starting pitchers this season, a streak that will end against Kennedy and fellow right-hander Daniel Hudson.
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