Carroll Continues Tear As D-backs Win Clean Game Behind Kelly

Another dominant day at the plate for Corbin Carroll as the D-backs topple Royals in Merrill Kelly's Cactus League debut.

Arizona Diamondbacks' Corbin Carroll rounds the bases after hitting a grand slam home run off Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Maciejewski in the second inning of a spring training game on Feb. 26, 2025, in Scottsdale at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. / Rob Schumacher/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Kansas City Royals at Salt River Fields on Friday by a score of 6-1. Arizona is now 3-4-1 in the Cactus League.

Of course, the final scores are negligible for the time being, but Friday's contest offered another round of encouraging sights ahead of the 2025 season.

Veteran starter Merrill Kelly made his first start of Spring Training. Kelly's command was a bit shaky, throwing only 16 of his 29 pitches for strikes, however his velocity was up a tick, hitting 94-95 on his fastball, and he was able to work two scoreless innings.

Kelly allowed a walk and groundball single in the first, but picked off Royals outfielder Maikel Garcia at second base before inducing a popout to end the inning.

In the second, Kelly set down the side in order, including a beautifully painted 3-2 changeup for strike three to end the inning.

Kelly told reporters, including Diamondbacks On SI's Jack Sommers postgame that he was pleased with the general feel and shape of his pitches.

"Good to get back up on the horse. The first game is always exciting, kind of a back to school feeling. But everything felt good, the ball was coming out of my hand," he said.

"I'm not trying to get ahead of myself and think that I'm going to throw 97 in the season.But if we're hitting those numbers with the effort that I'm putting out, it's definitely an encouraging sign for sure," Kelly said.

Manager Torey Lovullo praised Kelly's outing in his postgame press conference.

"Merrill is such a student of his delivery, and when it's all synced up and it's feeling good, he's going to show you that 94-mile-an-hour fastball. So I know how hard he's working.He's doing everything he possibly can for arm care, all the normal things, but getting that delivery synced up as well so the timing is right," Lovullo said.

Right-hander Ryne Nelson replaced Kelly in the third, and worked two scoreless innings of his own. He threw a relatively high count of 40 pitches. Similarly to Kelly, only 25 were for strikes.

Nelson surrendered two walks and a base hit, but kept Kansas City's offense off home plate.

"It's good to be out there again, get into some live game action rhythm. I think there's some things you just can't replicate throwing on the sides and in live at-bats. Game speed and everything, so it's nice to get that feel back. Kind of figure out my rhythm and my routines out there," Nelson said following his outing.

"Felt like it went as good as you can ask for for a first one. ... Threw some where I wanted to. Didn't strike the world out, but got some soft contact and stuff like that."

And the rest of the pitching staff followed suit. After Nelson exited, LHP Joe Mantiply, LHP A.J. Puk RHP Justin Martinez and RHP Cristian Mena combined to throw four scoreless innings.

The lone blip on Arizona's pitching line came in the form of a solo home run on a misplaced center-cut fastball by right-hander Kevin Ginkel, who finished the inning with a punchout.

But offensively, it was once again Corbin Carroll's day. Carroll singled to bring home a leadoff triple by CF Jorge Barrosa in the third inning to open the scoring.

Then Carroll's power surge continued in the fifth. After a single by Ketel Marte, Carroll launched his third homer in as many games, this time taking the first pitch from left-handed reliever Sam Long 414 feet to center, coming off the bat at 104 MPH to make the score 4-0.

D-backs' no. 3 prospect Gino Groover also homered on Friday, working a nine-pitch at-bat before sending one 393 feet, 100 MPH off the bat to left center.

Arizona added two more runs in the eighth inning. A pair of doubles by Rene Pinto and Trey Mancini opened the inning, before Connor Kaiser singled in another, making it 6-1, a score that held up as Mena worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Lovullo was pleased overall with what took place on Friday, and expressed his satisfaction in his postgame presser.

#Dbacks manager Torey Lovullo talking about today's 6-1 win over the #Royals pic.twitter.com/YwKlU2YSZO

— Jack Sommers (@shoewizard59) February 28, 2025

"I like clean games. It was a really clean game. It was well pitched. We played good defense. We had some timely hitting. We executed in a lot of different areas. ...

"Of course, I love the Corbin Carroll home run and just continues to be a really, really short, compact swing to the baseball. And [he] isn't missing the pitch that I think he's looking for. It was nice to see Gino Groover get his first home run of the spring.

"So I love all those things, don't get me wrong, but that's not how I look at the game. I look at the game inside of the game, and we're doing a lot of things right. It's very pleasing. But look, the pitching was fantastic today. ... Merrill to [Nelson], their stuff was crisp. I know they were making some adjustments and making pitches," the skipper continued.

"Things aren't perfect, every single pitch with those guys, but they made pitches when they had to. And then it was a bullpen from there. Everybody was great," Lovullo said.

The Diamondbacks will be back in action on Saturday, taking on the Colorado Rockies at 1:10 p.m. at Salt River Fields.

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