Diamondbacks 5, Rockies 6: Unbeaten no more

Record: 1-1. Change on 2015: -1.

The good? It appears that the 15 strikeouts piled up by Diamondbacks' pitchers this afternoon matches their most for a spring game since records started being kept in 2009. Kyle Drabek, who worked a scoreless eighth around a hit and two walks, was the only pitcher used here who didn't K at least one batter per frame. Jose Cisnero got all three of his outs by the strikeout in the ninth, but also allowed a run and was tagged with the loss. Randall Delgado and Enrique Burgos fanned two apiece in their inning of work, and Tyler Clippard got one K in his debut, although allowed a home-run to Carlos Gonzalez.

The starting pitchers to appear this afternoon had some success, with Robbie Ray fanning three over two scoreless innings, and Zack Godley striking out four in his two. However, Zack got into trouble shortly after arrival, as a one-out double and walk was followed by a long home-run to center off the bat of Trevor Story, to give Colorado a 3-2 lead. He ended with three runs on four hits and a walk. Ray's numbers were rather better, with just one hit, a leadoff double followed by six straight retired and no walks. Steve Berthiaume called it "very encouraging," saying Ray "Threw first pitch strikes, effective with off speed/breaking pitches," and Steve Gilbert said Ray "looked impressive."

On offense, the ten hits and one walk were spread around eleven different players, so hard to pick anyone out for particular praise. Six of the ten hits went for extra-bases, with doubles for Brandon Drury, Tuffy Gosewisch, Jake Lamb, and Zach Borenstein (inevitably - his spring OPS sits at 2.334!), while Rickie Weeks made his D-backs debut count, with a two-RBI double in the third-inning, following an earlier strikeout). Nick Ahmed tripled and scored our opening run in the first inning, but Peter O'Brien went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts.

Tomorrow, we get to play somebody else apart from Colorado! Be still, my beating heart... It's still at Salt River Fields, but the visitors will be the Oakland Athletics. It will be the first outing in Sedona Red for Zack Greinke: while there will be no TV or radio coverage, the asteroids will be in attendance, so we'll be looking forward to updates from them as the afternoon progresses!