Dbacks 3, Padres 2: Greinke joins elite group, Dbacks lose anyway

After the scare of him being removed from his last game with an abdominal issue, Zach Greinke’s MRI came back clean, and he pitched his scheduled start in San Deigo tonight. Early on, especially, it was impossible to tell that last week we were wondering if might be looking at losing him for an extended period of time. He sat down the first seven he faced before giving up a single to Austin Hedges. Nothing would come of it, though, even with a sac bunt moving him to second.

On the flip side, Matt Strahm was also pitching well for the Padres. He also had 1-2-3 innings in the first and second, but he gave up a single to the first batter of the third inning, not the second. However, just like Greinke, he was able to strand Dyson at second after a sac bunt.

The Diamondbacks were able to get a couple on the board in the fourth and fifth innings. Eduardo Escobar took the second pitch he saw and knocked a one-out solo shot to left field, breaking the tie. John Ryan Murphy added one of his own in the fifth, pushing the lead to two. 2-0 Diamondbacks

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Greinke was still cruising. Franmil Reyes struck out for the first out of the inning, but it was a bit more significant than just that. It was Greinke’s 2500th career K, making him the 37th pitcher ever to accomplish that in MLB history. As an aside, one begins to wonder what he needs to do to punch his ticket for Cooperstown, if he hasn’t already done that.

After the big strikeout, he walked Machado, but he then struck out Eric Hosmer on four pitches and got Hunter Renfroe to ground out to Ketel Marte to end the inning. He then added another strike out to cap off a 1-2-3 fifth inning, sending the team to the sixth with a two run lead.

It wouldn’t last much longer, however. In the bottom of the sixth, a one out single to Ian Kinsler got things going. One out later, he scored on a Many Machado single up the middle, and then one pitch later, Machado scored on a home run off the bat Hosmer. Just like that, in the span of four pitches, the Diamondbacks went from a two run lead to a one run deficit. 3-2 Padres

And that ended up being the ball game. Greinke went another inning and sat the Padres down in order once again to finish off his line at a usually good enough 7 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. Matt Andriese also sat the side down in order in the eighth, but the Diamondbacks only managed one single in the top of the seventh before going quietly into the night.

Rough night all around for WPA. Greinke ended up with a -15.8%, and Adam Jones joined him in double digit negatives with -11.8%. Right behind them were Nick Ahmed and Ketel Marte with 9.8% and 8.4% respectively. Like happens a lot in games like that, Eduardo Escobar managed to have the highest WPA with a measly 4.9%.

265 comments from 18 of you guys. Justin lead the way with 52 comments and April was right behind him with 49. All present were:

Diamondhacks, GuruB, Imstillhungry95, Jack Sommers, Jim McLennan, Johnneu, Justin27, Makakilo, Michael McDermott, MrMrrbi, NikT77, Rockkstarr12, ShirtOffYourBack, Smurf1000, Snake_Bitten, asteroid, onedotfive, suroeste

It would be easy to give COTN to Michael for his reverse jinx leading to JRM’s homer, but I think instead I’ll give it to suroeste, and their commentary on how AZ Central described our site

Honestly not sure what the difference is exactly, but the first one sounds nicer for sure!

Day game tomorrow, and while I’m loath to call a game against the Padres in the middle of May, but yeah it’s kind of a must win. The Diamondbacks and Padres are tied for second in the division, one game over .500 and seven games back of the Dodgers. It’s a 12:40 start, so get that doctor’s note and find the nearest tv. We’ll see you there!