Arizona Diamondbacks Thump San Francisco Giants and Tie for First Place; Paul Goldschmidt Smashes His First-Ever Home Run

By Benjamin Leatherman Wed., Aug. 3 2011 at 7:35 AM

Categories: Sports

Paul Goldschmidt, the Arizona Diamondbacks' newest hero.

It's safe to say that the past two days have been the biggest in Paul Goldschmidt's young life. On Monday, the 23-year-old made his major league debut after getting called up from the minors by the Arizona Diamondbacks for their current series against the San Francisco Giants.

He made an immediate impact, to say the least, by walloping a two-out single during his first at-bat in the bigs against Matt Cain, one of the best pitchers in San Francisco's arsenal.

Last night, however, Goldschmidt topped himself and made highlight reels across the country when he smacked his first ever home run during Arizona's 6-1 win over the Jints. It was a even was a two-run moonshot to boot, that came via a pitch from all-star Tim Lincecum. Heck, that's better than golden boy Justin Upton, who didn't even hit his first homer until his third game in a D-Backs uniform.

Goldschmidt's epic homer provided the go-ahead runs for his team last night, who are now tied for first place in the National League West after substantial back-to-back victories against the Giants. The current World Series champs. On the Bay Area Bombers' home turf.

If you aren't on the Diamondbacks' bandwagon yet, better hop aboard now.

The rookie slugger was the only D-Backs batter to score against Lincecum last night, as the long-haired lefty kept things scoreless both before and after Goldschmidt's home run in the fifth frame. Lincecum earned only three hits overall, striking out eight players in seven innings of work. It was only after Giants relief pitcher Ramon Ramirez got the ball in the eighth that Arizona broke the game open.

In that inning, Upton staged a two-out, two-run homer to left that scored Kelly Johnson to make the score 4-1. Ryan Roberts and Gerardo Parra then unleashed RBIs in the final frame to add some extra salt to San Francisco's wounds.

The Diamondbacks and Giants are now tied atop the NL West standing with identical record of 61-49. And as impressive as this series, not to mention Goldschmidt's rise to glory, has been to watch, there's still one more game to be played before Arizona returns home to Chase Field. While the Snakes have already won the series itself, the winner of this afternoon's contest will grab ahold of first place (albeit temporarily).

Right-hander Jason Marquis (8-5, 3.95 ERA) will face off against the Giants' Ryan Vogelsong (8-1, 2.23) as the Diamondbacks go for series sweep in a few hours. First pitch is at 12:45 p.m. TV: Fox Sports Arizona. Radio: KTAR 620 AM. For more information, see www.dbacks.com.