Zack Greinke feels at home at Chase Field after win
Zack Greinke’s $206.5 million Diamondbacks residency opened with two home losses with 16 earned runs that set off Chase Field alarms.
Since then, Greinke has looked more like the ace the Diamondbacks sought, particularly in at least the past month with reassuring home success.
After going 1-3 in his first five home starts as a Diamondback, Greinke has won consecutive Chase Field starts for the first time this season with Saturday night’s 8-7 Diamondbacks home win.
“I feel a lot more comfortable out there,” Greinke said. “It feels like this my home park now.”
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Greinke would have been hard-pressed to lose Saturday night after the Diamondbacks spotted him an 8-1 lead after two innings. He was in full control for five innings before a rough sixth inning combination of bad pitches and bad luck left an 8-4 lead to the bullpen.
Greinke shook off an early hiccup, a first-inning home run with Matt Kemp knocking a first-pitch fastball into the Diamondbacks’ bullpen. Besides that, Greinke was making quick work of the Padres, the majors’ second-worst hitting team.
“The fastball was probably the best its best been, maybe all year,” Greinke said. “Good fastball, command and change-up and slide were pretty good also.”
Greinke retired the side in order in the second, third and fourth innings as part of 10 consecutive retired Padres, including the first nine of them on ground outs.
“He settled in and used all his pitches,” Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale said. “They did battle him. I thought they did a real nice job of battling him in the middle of the game getting pitch count higher and so you’ve got to give them some credit too. They had some really tough at-bats to get the four runs.”
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Greinke escaped allowing a lead-off double in the fifth inning with ideal timing for one of his two strikeouts, putting a fastball past Brett Wallace’s swing to keep Melvin Upton Jr. at second base before inducing two fly outs.
The sixth inning was not as kind. Alexi Amarista and Jon Jay hit doubles on consecutive pitches and Greinke followed with his only walk, a no-out base on balls to Wil Myers. Leading 8-1 entering the inning, Greinke had a chance to minimize the damage until a bad bounce led to the end of his night. Yangervis Solarte’s high-bouncer down the first-base line hit the foul-side of the bag, kicking away from first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to score one runner and put the other on third base to score on the ensuing sacrifice fly.
“You can let him score,” Greinke said of his mind-set after a leadoff double with a large lead. “Just don’t let it become a big inning. So that was kind of the plan. It ended up being a pretty big inning but not so big that they caught up too much."
The Diamondbacks lead stayed at 8-4 when second baseman Jean Segura knocked down Wallace’s hot grounder, quickly retrieved the ball and threw out Solarte trying to score.
That closed Greinke’s line after a 96-pitch outing – six innings with four earned runs on six hits and one walk. It was enough to give him a 4-1 month with a 3.82 ERA after his third consecutive win.
It was a continuation of Greinke’s mastery of the Padres. He entered the game with a career 1.64 ERA against San Diego.
“I thought I pitched better today than some other games where I had better results but that ball hitting the base hurt for a double in the sixth inning,” said Greinke, who also singled and scored during the five-run second inning and now is batting .296.
Reach Paul Coro atpaul.coro@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-2470. Follow him atwww.twitter.com/paulcoro.
Sunday’s game
Padres at Diamondbacks
When: 1:10 p.m.
Where: Chase Field (Roof hotline: 602-462-6262).
Pitchers: Diamondbacks RHP Archie Bradley (1-0, 7.84) vs. Padres LHP Drew Pomeranz (4-4, 1.70).
TV/Radio: FSAZ/KMVP-FM (98.7), KSUN-AM (1400).
Bradley will be making his third start for the Diamondbacks in 2016. In his first one, on April 18 against the Giants, he allowed five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings but did not get a decision in the 9-7 win. On May 9 he picked up the win during a 10-5 victory at the Rockies when he allowed four runs over six innings. In seven starts at Triple-A Reno, Bradley was 5-1 with a 1.99 and in his last start there, threw eight scoreless innings in a 3-1 win over Omaha. … Pomeranz has made nine starts and six of them have been quality starts (at least six innings pitched and three or fewer earned runs allowed). He hasn’t allowed a run in three of his last four starts, but he hasn’t had any run support this month. In the past five games he’s pitched, the Padres have scored a total of just four runs. Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt is 4 for 9 against him with two walks, two doubles and three RBI.