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Miley wins 16th as Diamondbacks top Rockies 15-5

DENVER — Wade Miley showed no signs he was feeling ill when he took the mound to face the Colorado Rockies.

An offensive outburst by the Arizona Diamondbacks left the rookie pitcher in even better shape.

Miley tossed six innings for his 16th win, Chris Johnson homered among his three hits and drove in three runs, and the Diamondbacks beat the slumping Rockies 15-5 on Friday night.

Miguel Montero had three hits and three RBIs, and Adam Eaton added a home run for the Diamondbacks, who set season-highs with 15 runs and 19 hits. Every position player had at least one hit.

“We haven’t had one of these in a while, so it felt good,” Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said. “Contributions from everybody.”

Miley (16-10) shook off an illness to become the second rookie NL pitcher since 1986 to win 16 games, according to the Diamondbacks. Jason Jennings also won 16 for Colorado in 2002 when he was the NL Rookie of the Year.

Miley didn’t consider skipping the start.

“I was going to pitch regardless,” he said. “It started last night, just a little sore throat. I woke up this morning all right. As the day went on, I felt a little weak but I was able to battle through it.”

Miley was hit hard but kept the damage to a minimum. He allowed five runs and 10 hits and benefited from his team’s biggest offensive outburst of the season. Arizona scored in every inning but the second in building a big lead off starter Drew Pomeranz and three relievers.

“You can’t pitch much worse than that,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.

The Diamondbacks broke open a tie game with a four-run fourth inning against Alex White. Montero singled home Justin Upton, Johnson hit a two-run double, and John McDonald — who also had three hits — had an RBI single to give Arizona an 8-4 lead.

“Every time I threw my two-seamer it got hit, and it was hit hard,” White said.

Miley found his groove after getting the lead back and set down nine straight at one point.

“When we had that big inning I wanted to get the offense right back in there as quick as I could,” Miley said.

Pomeranz and White, the key players in last year’s trade that sent Ubaldo Jimenez to Cleveland, are a combined 3-18 this season. White (2-9) allowed five earned runs in 1 1-3 innings.

Pomeranz gave up four runs and four hits, and walked five in three innings.

“Eighty pitches in three innings, it’s not going to get you very far,” Tracy said. “Where it’s going to get you is a bullpen torn to pieces. That’s what it’s going to do.”

Wilin Rosario had three hits for the Rockies, who have lost seven straight. Colorado needs to win five of its remaining 12 games to avoid losing 100 for the first time in the franchise’s 20-year history.

The Diamondbacks tacked on a run in the fifth on third baseman Chris Nelson’s error, and Eaton made it 11-4 in the sixth with a two-run homer off Josh Outman.

Johnson’s two-run homer in the seventh — his 15th — made it 13-5.

“We had some good at-bats, balls fell in,” Johnson said. “Got to score a lot of runs because they can come back pretty easy in this ballpark.”

The Rockies jumped ahead when Josh Rutledge had an RBI double in the first and scored on Rosario’s single that gave Colorado a brief 2-1 lead.

Montero’s two-run double highlighted Arizona’s three-run third inning that made it 4-2. Colorado tied it in the bottom half on Nelson’s RBI groundout and a sacrifice fly by Andrew Brown.

NOTES: Rockies OF Carlos Gonzalez (left hamstring tightness) didn’t play. He is day-to-day. ... Hill needs one double to join Paul Goldschmidt with at least 40. It would be the third time in franchise history two players have reached the mark. ... Montero has a career-high 88 RBIs this season. ... Upton extended his hitting streak to eight games.

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