PHOENIX — John Hester hit a towering homer in his first major league at-bat, and the Arizona Diamondbacks scored seven runs in the third inning on their way to a 14-7 rout of the Houston Astros on Friday night.
Alex Romero and Miguel Montero homered for Arizona, which won for the third time in 12 games.
Pinch-hitting in the sixth, the 25-year-old Hester hit a 2-2 delivery from Wilton Lopez, also making his first appearance in the majors, an estimated 420 feet off the batter's eye in center field.
When Hester got back to the dugout, he was mobbed by teammates who shoved him up the steps to answer a curtain call from the Chase Field crowd of 26,190.
Hester became the 101st player to homer in his first major league at-bat — and the second Diamondback to do it this season. Gerardo Parra homered in his first game on May 13 against Cincinnati.
Jeff Keppinger and Hunter Pence homered for the Astros, who allowed only nine runs in winning two of three from the Diamondbacks last weekend in Minute Maid Park.
Fresh off an 11-0 victory over San Francisco in AT&T Park on Thursday night, the Diamondbacks rolled up 10 runs in the first three innings against the Astros. The blitz began against starter Yorman Bazardo (0-1), who gave up eight runs, eight hits and three walks in two-plus innings.
Houston led 2-0 after a half inning when Lance Berkman hit a two-run double off Arizona starter Max Scherzer (8-8).
The Diamondbacks answered with two runs in the first on a bases-loaded walk to Mark Reynolds and a double-play grounder by Montero, then took a 3-2 lead on Stephen Drew's RBI single in the second.
Keppinger's two-run homer in the third gave Houston a 4-3 lead. Then the roof caved in on the Astros.
The Diamondbacks' first seven batters in the third inning all scored.
Bazardo started the inning by walking Ryan Roberts, then gave up four straight hits, the last a two-run double by Parra.
Manager Cecil Cooper summoned Lopez, who was called up from Double-A Corpus Christi earlier in the day when the club put righty Alberto Arias on the 15-day disabled list.
Lopez' flight landed at Sky Harbor Airport at about 5 p.m, and he made his major league debut 2 1-2 hours later. It wasn't pretty.
Lopez gave up a single to fellow rookie Brandon Allen on his second pitch and then yielded a three-run homer to Romero, who deposited the ball into the pool area in right-center field.
Lopez pitched four innings, allowing six runs and eight hits.
NOTES: Former Diamondbacks OF Luis Gonzalez will announce his retirement at a news conference on Saturday. Gonzalez is joining Arizona as a special assistant to president and CEO Derrick Hall. ... After singling home a run in the second, Drew was caught in a pickle between first and second and retired on a 9-1-6-4-6-1 putout.