Arizona Diamondbacks 1, Milwaukee Brewers 6: Godley is goodly, but Miley is wiley

Record: 3-5. Change on 2017: -1.

The Diamondbacks dropped their third Cactus League contest in a row at Salt River Fields, falling to the Brewers in front of a crowd of 6,763. The main culprit here was Andrew Chafin, who was charged with three earned runs despite not allowing a hit, as he walked three batters in the fifth inning - all left-handers. He left with two outs and the bases loaded, but Michael Dimock was unable to clear up the mess he inherited, allowing a triple that emptied the bags of Brewers. Chafin has now allowed four earned runs in 2.2 spring innings, while only giving up one hit.

Before him, Zack Godley had started for Arizona, and looked pretty solid in his second outing of the pre-season. He was more efficient than last time, taking a total of exactly 50 pitches to get through his three scoreless innings. He did walk a couple, but also struck out four batters, and the ball seemed to be sinking nicely. There were scoreless innings of relief from Fernando Salas, Silvino Bracho and Jorge De La Rosa. The last named looked particularly good (albeit against the Brewers’ B-boys), striking out the side in the seventh, on 16 pitches. But the D-backs’ ninth-inning struggles continued: after a scoreless eighth, Kris Medlen was tagged for three, bringing our tally allowed there to 14 in three days.

The D-backs’ hitters were not able to solve the problem of Wade Miley, who struck out five batters in his 2.1 scoreless innings of work. Arizona were held to four hits and three walks this afternoon. Their best chance of breaking through big came in the fourth, when they loaded the bases on a single and two walks, but Christian Walker lined out to center. They did finally get on the board in the sixth, when Cesar Puello drove in Jack Reinheimer with an RBI single. Puello had half the D-backs’ hits, with the others being by Kris Negron and Yasmany Tomas. Negron also stole a base, as did Jeremy Hazelbaker, though there was an error by Evan Marzilli.

Tomorrow, the D-backs take on the Rockies, and are the “visitors” at Salt River Fields. Albert Suarez is the scheduled starter for Arizona.