Diamondbacks 3/9, Royals 0/Giants 5

Record: 9-3-1. Change on 2015: +2.

Diamondbacks 3, Royals 0

Rubby De La Rosa had been perhaps the shakiest of our starter candidates the first two times round the rotation, but responded admirably at Salt River Fields, tossing four shutout innings against Kansas City. It looked a little flaky after the first two batters he faced both singled, but De La Rosa regrouped, getting a strikeout before a sweetly-turned double play ended the threat. That started a streak of 10 straight sent down by Rubby, including K's of Clint Barmes, Drew Butera and Paulo Orlando in the third. He allowed a pair of two-out hits in the fourth, but got the last out to end with a line of four hits in four innings, with no walks and five strikeouts.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks offense did all the scoring they would manage before recording their second out. Jean Segura hustled out a double, Phil Gosselin had an RBI single, and one out later, David Peralta got his first home-run of spring with a two-run shot. Neither side scored thereafter. Peralta added a single, and Evan Marzilli got Arizona's other extra-base hit, a double, and walked. After De La Rosa, we saw the first spring games by Brad Ziegler and Silvino Bracho. Both pitched scoreless innings; Brad got four ground-balls, one resulting in a hit, and Bracho fanned two in his frame. Matt Reynolds and two innings by Josh Collmenter completed the six-hit shutout.

Diamondbacks 9, Giants 5

It was Archie Bradley starting in Scottsdale, and his performance was solid enough, throwing three innings of one-run ball, on three hits and a walk with one strikeout. Wesley Wright and Keith Hessler followed, each giving up a run in their inning of work, as did Cody Hall in the seventh and Sam LeCure in the ninth. However, there were zeroes posted by both Kyle Drabek and R.J. Hively, The latter and Hessler each struck out two batters in their respective frames, though Hessler was tagged for three hits as well.

Leading the offense was Peter O'Brien, who played the entire game as DH and had a typically O'Brienesque game, getting three hits and striking out the other two times he came up! Rickie Weeks Jr and Brandon Drury each got two hits, while Welington Castillo continued his hot start to spring, reaching base safely twice, on a hit and a walk. Socrates Brito picked up his first home-run of spring in the third inning off Giants' starter Ty Blach. Gabby Guerrero singled and stole his first base of the year for the D-backs.

With our nine wins now the most by any team in the Cactus League, tomorrow, it's off to Camelback Ranch for a 1:05pm game against the White Sox. Robbie Ray seeks to extend his good start to the year.