Dbacks 8, Padres 5: Zack Greinke, Hitter

Zack Greinke took the mound for the Diamondbacks tonight, looking to rebound from a short, rough start on Opening Day, and it didn’t look like this one was going to go much better. He got Ian Kinsler and Eric Hosmer to make a couple of easy outs, but Manny Machado followed it with a single. Hunter Renfroe then took a 1-2 pitch and deposited it in the bleachers to give the Padres a quick two run lead. Franchy Cordero added another single and a stolen base to put a runner on second with two outs, but Greinke got Fernando Tatis to strike out, ending the inning. 2-0 Padres

After a quick top of the second from the Dback’s hitters, Greinke started the bottom of the second with more of what he was dealing with in the first. Back-to-back singles from Francisco Mejia and Manuel Margot started the inning, prompting much discussion from the GDT about whether or not we were worried about Greinke yet. While we all were debating that, Zack then proceeded to strike the next three batters out, escaping the jam.

Both teams went quietly in the third, so we’ll fast forward to the fourth. With one out, Ketel Marte put Arizona on the board with a solo home run to get things going. Nick Ahmed singled and JRM walked to put two on and one out for Zack Greinke. Of course, Greinke hit a three run home run to give the Dbacks a lead. Adam Jones added a double, but he was stranded. 4-2 Arizona

If you were worried that the strain of hitting might impede Zack’s ability to pitch, don’t worry. He followed up his feat of offensive strength by striking out the side, two looking one swinging, in the bottom of the inning.

In the fifth inning, David Peralta hit a lead off double, but the rest of the team weren’t able to do anything to bring him home. The Padres again fell in order to Greinke, who was clearly offended by out doubting.

The scoring picked back up in the sixth. John Ryan Murphy was up first and hit a looooooong home run into the upper deck in left field. Immediately after that, Greinke hit his second home run of the game. It’s the first time Greinke has had a two home run game, and his first home runs in general since 2015. Quite the performance with the bat for him tonight. 6-2 Dbacks

Bottom of the sixth saw the lead shrink a bit. It started off with Manny Machado hitting a pop up just to the right of home plate. As he was jogging to first, he seemed to get his feet tangled up in the feet of JRM and then threw his bat on the ground directly next to Murphy. The home plate umpire called him out, leading to a very heated discussion with Andy Green, which ultimately got Green ejected from the game. After that wrapped up, Hunter Refroe finally got his turn to bat again, and he wasted very little time in becoming the second player to hit two home runs in this game. 6-3 Diamondbacks

Greinke struggled a bit the rest of the inning, but made it through without any more runs given up. That ended up being the end of the road for him, though Lovullo did let him hit for himself in the bottom of the inning. He ended his night with a line of 6 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 HR, 0 BB, and 10 K and a hitting line of 2-for-3, 2 HR and 4 RBI. Much better than the last time he took the mound.

In the seventh, Christian Walker joined the hit parade, getting a solo home run of his own, extending the lead further. Andrew Chafin came in to pitch the bottom of the inning, and to his credit, waited to issue a walk until the second hitter he faced. However, he gave up his first home run since September 9th, 2017 to pinch hitter Wil Meyers, to drop the lead to two.

He would only get two more batters, a strike out and a single, before being pulled in favor of Yoan Lopez. Lopez came on to face Manny Machado, who he had a little bit of a beef with towards the end of last season, when he very emphatically struck Machado out in one of the final games of the year. Fortunately/unfortunately nothing much happened, and Machado grounded out to third to end the inning.

That was basically the end of the game. Bradley pitched a scoreless eighth, and Greg Holland recorded the save, though he had to work around a couple hard hit balls. Tonight’s win gives the Dbacks the series win, and they’ll go for the sweep tomorrow behind Robbie Ray.

Carol Danvers: Zack Greinke (hitting), 33.7%

CGI’d to look younger Phil Coulson: Andrew Chafin, -10%

Roll Call is still broken, but at time of writing we appear to have hit 1029 comments in the GDT. COTN has to go to Guru, for this well done reverse jinx right before JRM’s home run

Day game tomorrow, with a 12:40 Arizona time start. Game will be on FSAZ and 620 KTAR, for those who have to sneak a radio into work. See you there!