Diamondbacks 9, Padres 8: No Zack? No Goldy? No problem!

Record 19-4-2. Change on 2015: +6.

This was a Diamondbacks' line-up missing both its ace pitcher and its star position player, with Zack Greinke's start being moved to the back fields at Salt River, to avoid facing a team he'll see next month, and Paul Goldschmidt getting a breather. However, that didn't stop the team from completing their second eight-game undefeated streak of spring: over their last seventeen contests, Arizona have an amazing 15-1-1 record. The offense continued to get it done, producing just enough to overcome some wobbly pitching - though I'd be more concerned if today's starter, Anthony Banda, had ever pitched above High-A ball.

So, taking that into account, his performance this afternoon against a rather more well-paid San Diego line-up, was entirely adequate. Four hits and no walks over three innings, including strikeouts of Derek Norris, Matt Kemp and Jon Jay - combined 2016 salary, north of $31.5 million. However, he did have a rough second inning, giving up four runs, as the Padres roared back into the game, after the D-backs had delivered hypothetical spring tacos by the middle of the second. We enjoyed a four-run inning of our own in the first, on RBI by Goldy stand-in Phil Gosselin, David Peralta, Jake Lamb and Chris Owings, Gosselin adding another run in the second.

The middle innings were then quiet for both teams, neither side scoring until the Padres tied it up off John Omahen in the sixth, in for an extended relief outing after scoreless innings from Jake Barrett and Kaleb Fleck. Omahen's outing didn't go too well: he allowed single runs in the sixth and seventh, then failed to retire any of the four batters faced in the eighth. R.J. Hively thus came into a sticky situation, with the tying run on second and no outs, but did sterling work, getting a strikeout and double-play to end the Padres' threat. Steve Hathaway then worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

Fortunately, Arizona put together another four-run inning in the seventh, keyed by Jason Bourgeois's two-run triple sandwiched between RBI for Yasmany Tomas and Tuffy Gosewisch. Tomas had another good day, picking up a trio of hits, and there were a pair of knocks apiece for Jean Segura and Gosselin, the former picking up a walk. Lamb went 0-for-0 with two walks and a sacrifice fly, while Peralta and Owings each reached base twice, with a hit and a base on balls. There were stolen bases for Segura, Nick Ahmed and Domingo Leyba, and Peralta helped gun down what turned out to be a key run at home, but also errors by Segura and Omahen.

Tomorrow, the team faces the Cleveland Indians at Salt River Fields, with a 1:10pm first pitch.