PHOENIX -- After experiencing a bit of a dead arm in his last outing, Josh Collmenter did not throw his usual between-starts bullpen session.
It brought him back to life.
Collmenter was as good as he has ever been this season in a 5-1 victory over San Diego. He struck out eight and gave up four singles and an unearned run in 8-1/3 innings, and he retired 15 in a row between giving up a single to open the ninth. He left after another single one-out later, with the D-backs in full control.
"Give the arm a little break. We've been going at it for quite a while now. August is usually the time if you are going to get fatigued, you start feeling it. I think it was just good to rest and be 100 percent going in," Collmenter said.
Collmenter (9-7) leads the D-backs in victories.
He was on the verge of tying the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and St. Louis' Adam Wainwright -- the 1-2 finishers in the 2013 NL Cy Young race -- for second in the league with two shutouts before leaving after 106 pitches. Miami's Henderson Alvarez has three.
The break served Collmenter well. He registered his normal 87-88 mph fastball velocity after topping out at 81-82 in his previous start, a 10-3 loss in Miami in which he gave up five runs in four innings.
"You could see much difference tonight," Arizona manager Kirk Gibson said.
Collmenter had no walks and went to a three-ball count only once while winning for the first time since July 20. His eight strikeouts tied a career high set in his rookie year, 2011.
"For me, a lot of times it is getting in counts where they have to swing at pitches outside the zone," Collmenter said.
"If I can get ahead in the count and I am locating my fastball, my changeup and my curveball are that much better. I am able to throw those off the fastball. I was able to get some on the changeups and some on high fastballs. Usually I am not going to get a whole lot."
Mark Trumbo beat out an RBI single in the hole at shortstop to keep the D-backs' first inning rally alive, and Miguel Montero followed with a two-run homer for a three-run lead. Trumbo has beaten out several hits recently while hitting .308 in his last 22 games.
1 -- three-ball count by right-hander Josh Collmenter
* Didi Gregorius made a play that left the D-backs searching for superlatives Friday, when he went deep in the hole at shortstop to field a ground ball in the seventh inning and threw a line drive to first baseman Mark Trumbo to retire Jedd Gyorko. "I was astonished," Grumbo said. "You don't see those kinds of arms too often. A guy goes in the hole like that, a lot of times they are going to have to bounce that throw. That thing was an absolute bullet. That was some guys' crow-hop." Gibson: "I don't know that I've ever seen that. The angle that he threw it ... he's very talented."
* David Peralta has seven triples and five outfield assists after getting one of each Friday. Not bad for a player who spent the first two months of the season at Double-A Mobile.
* Miguel Montero put a little runner's English on his home run that hit the foul pole down the right field line in the first inning. I was running sideways like that (leaning into fair territory) to make it stay fair," he said with a smile. Montero hit a changeup, middle-in, on the first pitch he saw from Cuban Odrisamer Despaigne to cap a three-run inning. Despaigne gave up one run in 6-2/3 innings in other start against the D-backs this season, June 29 in San Diego. "I was looking for something I could hammer, and he threw me a first pitch changeup," Montero said. "I was lucky enough to keep it fair."
A.J. Pollock will return to Triple-A Reno on Saturday to resume his rehab assignment after taking six days off last week because of swelling in his right hand. Pollock was on the disabled list with a fractured fourth right metacarpal suffered May 31, and he was struck by a pitch in a rehab game in the rookie Arizona League at the onset of his first rehab stint, causing more swelling. "Balls inside, he couldn't really get to them because he had a lot of pain in there," Gibson said. "It's calmed down. Everything is good right now."
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