Diamondbacks 3, Guardians 1

The Diamondbacks had a private showing tonight in front of about 1500 friends, family and patrons, (writers estimate; announced crowd of tickets sold was 7,153) . Zach Davies got the start for the Diamondbacks in his final spring tuneup. He faced off against Cleveland Guardians minor league left hander Konnor Pilkington.

Davies worked around some hard contact to face the minimum the first three innings. Franmil Reyes did have a single off him in the 2nd but promptly got picked off.

Christian Walker got the scoring under way in the 2nd, hooking a line drive into the Diamondbacks bullpen. The ball left the bat at a healthy 110 MPH with just a 22 degree launch angle. Walker had a very very good spring and looks dialed in at the plate.

Pavin Smith and Carson Kelly each followed with singles and two outs later Geraldo Perdomo hit a sharp single up the middle just past the outstretched arm of the Guardians shortstop for a 2 out RBI knock and a 2-0 Dbacks lead.

In the bottom of the 3rd David Peralta continued his hot spring hitting a homer that just cleared the left center field fence. It was his 5th homer in 29 spring at bats

Daulton Varsho ran a long way to make an outstanding diving sprawling catch on a smash to the warning track in right centerfield in the 4th. [He’s MUCH better in CF than RF]. It wasn’t the only good play of the inning. Prior to that Perdomo made a slick snare of a sharp one hopper and spun to throw out a runner at 3rd on a bang bang play. Then he made a diving stop in the hole and made a strong throw to first to record the final out of the inning.

Davies got 4 more outs, and came out of the game with one out in the 5th after walking a batter. He got in his 60 pitches, giving up just two singles, one walk and struck out two. The walk came around to score when Ty Tice came in the game and gave up a double over the head of David Peralta to get the Guardians on the board, making the score 3-1. Tice had to be removed from the game one out later with an unknown injury.

Walker just missed a second homer in the 6th, backing the centerfielder all the way to wall at the 413 mark in left center.

The D-backs offense was finished for the night after the 3rd once Pilkinton was out of the game. They were hitless over their final 5 turns at bat with just a walk and a Hit by Pitch, both from Carson Kelly who was on base 3 times tonight.

Dan Straily threw 3 scoreless innings, giving up two singles and a walk, and striking out two. Sean Poppen closed it out with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

The early offense, the good defense, and the effective outing from Davies were all welcome early developments, and the rapid closure over the final few innings were the cherry on top.