DIAMONDBACKS

Zack Greinke a bright spot in another Diamondbacks home loss

Nick Piecoro
azcentral sports

For the first time this season, Diamondbacks right-hander Zack Greinke pitched well in his home ballpark. He was more workmanlike than masterful, more blue-collar than overpowering, but he showed he could still tame the lion’s den that is Chase Field.

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zack Greinke (21) throws in this triple exposure during the 4th inning against the Colorado Rockies in their MLB game Saturday. April 30, 2016 in Phoenix.

But after closer Brad Ziegler was unable to keep a tie game knotted at 2 in the ninth inning, watching as the Colorado Rockies rallied for three runs in what would become a 5-2 victory, the Diamondbacks were forced to once again confront an ugly truth.

They have not played well in this ballpark this season, particularly against the Rockies, a team expected to be among the many pushovers residing in the National League this season. Instead, the Diamondbacks have been the ones toppling over at Chase Field.

The loss dropped the Diamondbacks to 12-14, with four of those losses coming in the five games they’ve played against the Rockies. In the past two days, they’ve scored just two runs in 18 innings against the Rockies, the team with, statistically speaking, the worst pitching staff in the National League.

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“The truth of the matter is, they’re just outplaying us,” Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale said. “They come into our ballpark and they’re playing really good baseball.

“We’ve got to suck it up and tell it like it is. They’re beating our butts. We have to come back (Sunday) and try to salvage one of these games before a long road trip.”

Greinke’s performance was a bright spot. After allowing 18 runs in 16 2/3 innings in his first three starts at home, he gave up just two runs in seven innings, exiting with the score tied.

For most of the evening, he mixed sharp sliders and curveballs along with well-placed fastballs and change-ups. His outing was filled with brief stretches of dominance followed by brief stretches of fallibility.

MORE: Rockies' Trevor Story torments Diamondbacks – again

But throughout it all he pounded the strike zone, which allowed him to keep his pitch count manageable despite having to work out of jams, including having at least two runners aboard in four of the first five innings.

The way Greinke saw it, the Rockies were getting hits on pitches that weren’t all that bad. He viewed it as a sort of continuation of a trend for him this season.

“Guys are batting close to .400 when they put the ball in play on me,” Greinke said. “That should stop pretty soon.

“I trust that if I make good pitches, it’ll balance out. If I start making a lot of bad pitches, it gives them a chance to hit better. But I feel like my pitches have been pretty decent the last couple of starts.”

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The pitch that hurt Greinke the most: a hanging slider Trevor Story laced into the gap in left-center field. It was one of two key hits Story would deliver in the game, yet another monster performance the Rockies’ rookie shortstop has turned in at Chase in the season’s first month.

“That was a really bad pitch,” Greinke said. “I gave up a run on that and then he ended up scoring, too, because of it. Two runs because of that bad pitch.”

Greinke’s walk to Nolan Arenado in the fifth was the last baserunner he would allow. He retired the final several batters he faced.

“The deeper he got into the game the better he got,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “You could really see him settle in.”

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Greinke’s stretches of dominance were impressive. He struck out consecutive batters on three separate occasions. He used his slider on back-to-back strikeouts in the first, getting Charlie Blackmon and Story swinging. In the third, he went to his looping curve – a pitch he used often on Saturday night – to get Carlos Gonzalez, then punched out Arenado, on a slider. Two innings later, he again got Blackmon and Story.

Greinke said he made “little changes here and there” in the way he worked in his home park; he said he didn’t want to stray too far from the things he does well. Though the results were better, he said the outcome prevented him from taking much solace in his first quality start of the year at Chase Field.

“It would be nicer to win the game,” he said. “That was one good thing, even though I’ve not been pitching good, we’ve been winning games when I’m pitching. It would have been nice to do that.”

Sunday’s game

Rockies at Diamondbacks

When: 1:10 p.m.

Where: Chase Field (Roof hotline: 602-462-6262).

Pitchers: Diamondbacks RHP Shelby Miller (0-2, 8.69) vs. Rockies RHP Chad Bettis (2-1, 3.77).

TV/radio: FSAZ/KMVP-FM (98.7), KSUN-AM (1400).

In his most recent outing, Miller tossed four shutout innings before running into trouble in a five-run fifth, an inning that included a three-run homer from Cardinals 1B Brandon Moss. … Miller is still looking for his first quality start. … He gave up six runs in six innings against the Rockies in his first outing of the year, serving up homers to SS Trevor Story, C Nick Hundley and 2B D.J. LeMahieu. … Bettis has worked at least six innings in four of his five starts. … His best outing came on April 15, when he threw six shutout innings against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. … He has a 7.32 ERA in 19 2/3 innings against the Diamondbacks, who scored five runs off him in 5 1/3 innings on April 5.

Coming up

Monday: Off.

Tuesday: At Miami, 4:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Patrick Corbin (1-3, 4.88) vs. Marlins LHP Justin Nicolino (1-0, 0.00).

Wednesday: At Miami, 4:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Rubby De La Rosa (3-3, 4.18) vs. Marlins RHP Jose Fernandez (2-2, 4.08).

Thursday: At Miami, 4:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Robbie Ray (1-1, 4.97) vs. Marlins LHP Adam Conley (1-1, 3.67).