Merrill Kelly of Arizona won five games in a row. But he lowered his ERA back to the three-run level.
In an away game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, Kelly pitched five hits, three walks and four strikeouts in five innings.
I felt sorry for my defensive error in the bottom of the first inning. He got off to a good start by striking out leadoff hitter Matt Carpenter, but sent Jose Martinez out on a walk. Paul De Jong got a grounder to shortstop to catch the runner on first base, but a third-base error came from Paul Goldschmidt's at-bat and didn't finish the inning.
A state of despondency Tyler O'Neill's two-run timely hit came out, and gave up a walk to Dexter Fowler. Kelly who later got his pitcher's coach on the mound to collect a walk from Matt Waters, but managed to close out the first inning by catching Coulton Wong with a strike-out.
Kelly, who scored two runs in a visa book in the bottom of the first inning, was supported by one run in the top of the second inning, and then blocked it with a triple in the bottom of the second. But after sending De Jong out to his own error in the bottom of the third inning, O'Neill hit a two-run home run to make the fourth run.
He stopped the game without additional runs in the fourth and fifth innings, but he ended up losing 2-4 in the top of the fifth inning, and Kelly lost 9 games (7 wins) in the season.
Though he became a losing pitcher, he regained his 3-point ERA in three games since the game against San Francisco on June 24, lowering his ERA to 3.93.
