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Diamondbacks line-up
- Ray Fuentes CF
- Chris Owings 2B
- Ketel Marte SS
- Christian Walker DH
- Yasmany Tomas LF
- Rudy Flores RF
- Kevin Cron 1B
- Jeff Mathis C
- Kris Negron 3B
+ Zack Greinke P
Interesting to see Greinke on the mound in a Cactus League game this year. That’s in contrast to last season: he made his first appearance on March 3, and that was actually the eighth game played by the Diamondbacks. It has been reported he wants to get a bit of an earlier start. “I’m trying to get ready a little bit faster this year so we’ll see how that goes, but it probably won’t work out that way. Just, last year, I felt like I was — it ended up being a good year — playing catch-up a little too much and if things didn’t work out super smooth the end of spring training, I might’ve been a little bit more behind, where this year I’m trying to start early so I don’t have to be lucky to get ready in time.”
Hard to say if he was out of sorts in the early regular season: his first three starts saw him go 1-1, and those pretty much reflected his level of performance (5 IP, two ER, ND; 6.2 IP, one ER, W; 5 IP, five ER, L). Zack also said he had “a couple of setbacks trying to get ready in the offseason,” though there doesn’t appear to be any cause for concern. The team seems to be happy to let Greinke do what Greinke wants. Torey Lovullo said, “I know that he’s trying to get to that special spot when he’s ready to go, and whatever it takes to get him there, we’re going to support him through that.” He’ll be the team’s horse in 2018, and it’s likely, how Zack goes, so will the D-backs. Here’s hoping that’s as good as 2017.
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