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Today sees Zack Greinke the ex-Brewer take on Chase Anderson the ex-Diamondback. Personally, I find it easy to forget that Zack used to be a Brewer. A Royal and a Dodger: sure. But in my consciousness of his career, Greinke’s time in Milwaukee is not much above the time he was an Angel. Zack was actually part of the Brewers in 2011, and faced the Diamondbacks in the NLDS that year. It didn’t go too well for Greinke. His post-season career debut came when he started Game 2 in Miller Park against Arizona, and was lucky to escape with a no-decision after allowing four runs in five innings. A Brad Ziegler meltdown allowed Milwaukee to prevail there, 9-4.
He was dealt from the Brewers to the Angels at the trade deadline the following year. And there’s another Arizona connection present, because one of the players who went from Los Angeles to Milwaukee in July 2012 was future Diamondback, Jean Segura. And who was one of the players traded to the Brewers, when we acquired Segura, three and a half years later in January 2016? That would be tonight’s starter for them, Chase Anderson. He has become a solid starter for them, though this year hasn’t been quite as good as his breakout campaign in 2017, when he went 12-4 with a 162 ERA+. His peripherals have cracked, with his K-rate in particular down below six (30 in 45.1 IP) this season.
However, going by May stats, the D-backs offense may be the cure-all for pitching ills. The team is batting .193 for the month, which is the worst in franchise history by 28 points (the next lowest was August 2012). Similarly, by OBP, this has been the worst too, by 20 and 36 points respectively, over August 2012 and the last month of 2014. Unsurprisingly, the OPS of .563 is also Arizona’s lowest ever for a month. The K-rate of 10.4 per game is close to the highest, too, trailing June 2016 (10.7) and the final month of 2010 (10.6). The team has never been held to three runs per game in a month: the lowest rate was July 2004’s 3.14. But with 44 runs in 18 contests so far, that’s an average of 2.44. Time to start playing catch-up!