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SAN FRANCISCO – The Diamondbacks’ season is nine games old and already there have been constant reminders of the value A.J. Pollock provides, value they were missing for nearly all of last season. They got another, perhaps the biggest yet, in the third inning of Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over the San Francisco Giants.

On a dead run, Pollock made a highlight reel catch of an Aaron Hill drive at the warning track, taking away what looked to be an extra-base hit before crashing into the wall in center field.

“I thought it was a hit,” Diamondbacks lefty Robbie Ray said. “When he caught it, that was pretty amazing.”

“That was ridiculous,” third baseman Jake Lamb said. “Unbelievable. That was really impressive. That’s why he’s one of the best out there. He’s unreal.”

BOX SCORE: Diamondbacks 4, Giants 3

It saved a run and, for all anyone knows, maybe the game, too, and it stood in stark contrast to a play Giants center fielder Gorkys Hernandez was not able to make in the top of the same inning, a ball that instead went for a bases-clearing triple for the Lamb.

The Diamondbacks are growing accustomed to those sorts of things working out in their favor through the season’s first 10 days. The win on Tuesday made them 7-2, extending their franchise-record-tying start (the 2007 and 2008 teams also won seven of their first nine).

They hit just enough. They played excellent defense. And they managed to win despite some ninth-inning drama from Fernando Rodney, a famous ninth-inning dramatist, to eke out their fourth win in six games against the Giants this year.

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Ray wasn’t at his best. He issued five walks and allowed seven balls off opponents bats at 95 mph or harder. But none of those walks came around to score and only one of those hard-hit balls went for hits.

“Everything was working for me,” Ray said. “The defense was making some amazing plays. Everything was just kind of clicking.”

The Diamondbacks loaded the bases in the third off Giants right-hander Jeff Samardzija, getting singles from Ray and Pollock and a Paul Goldschmdit walk to bring Lamb to the plate. With the count 1-1, he drove a ball to deep left-center. Hernandez raced back, appearing to have a read on it, but seemed to whiff on it at the last instant.

“I almost got it,” he said. “I jumped a little bit and the ball hit my glove.”

Pollock had no such trouble. In the same park where, two years ago, he robbed the Giants’ Jarrett Parker of a home run, he managed to make another impressive grab.

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“I was just trying to make a play,” said Pollock, who missed most of last season follow elbow surgery. “Robbie is pitching so well and you take a couple of good steps and think you might have a chance at it. Then the last couple, it’s decision time if you think you can make it or not. I just felt like I could have a chance at that ball and was fortunate enough to catch it.”

Lamb’s hit gave him a team-leading 10 RBIs; six of those have come on two swings against Samardzija, whom Lamb connected off of for a three-run homer at Chase Field last week.

“He walked me twice and I got that hit, but his stuff was really, really moving tonight,” Lamb said. “I just wanted to simplify it and look to get a fastball out over the plate. He threw a couple of good pitches and he left that fastball out over the middle of the plate and I put a good swing on it.”

The Diamondbacks added an insurance run in the eighth on a Chris Iannetta RBI single. It turned out to be important. As a steady drizzle fell, Rodney issued a walk and allowed a pair of run-scoring hits, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in the form of pinch-hitting Brandon Crawford.

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But Rodney fed Crawford five consecutive change-ups to strike him out. He’s a perfect three for three on save opportunities this year.

“The bottom line is he got the save and we got the win,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “We know that there’s going to be some moments that every inning can offer you, but Fernando made pitches when he had to and we couldn’t be more thrilled about that.”

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.

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