Greinke sets up for wild-card game start Prospects honored
Zack Greinke admitted he didn’t have the most ironclad reasoning for wanting to push back his scheduled start from Wednesday to Friday, but he said it sounded like the approach that would best prepare him to take the ball in next week’s wild-card game.
Greinke was originally scheduled to face the Giants on Wednesday but instead will pitch in Kansas City on Friday. That means he’ll be pitching on six days’ rest Friday and the normal four days’ rest for the Oct. 4 game.
“Since it was either have seven days this time or seven days the next time, it became a question of which one would you rather have the seven days on,” Greinke said. “So my first thought was to have the seven days this time. I guess people think I put more thought into things than I really do, but I just felt like it made more sense. I don’t know if it actually does make more sense, but I felt like it did.”
Part of Greinke’s thinking, he said, was the results from his most recent start, when he gave up eight runs in four innings against the Marlins on Friday night.
“I pitched really bad last game so I kind of liked the idea of having extra time between this start so I could work on some things and hopefully fix it,” he said.
It’s possible Greinke won’t throw as many pitches on Friday against the Royals, giving him a lighter workload so he’ll be fresh for the wild-card outing.
“I think that’s the ideal situation,” Greinke said. “It might work out that way. It might not. But that’s the ideal plan.”
Reading tealeaves
The Diamondbacks will start right-hander Braden Shipley in Greinke’s place on Wednesday. After an off day Thursday, Greinke will start Friday and Taijuan Walker will start Saturday. Manager Torey Lovullo said Sunday has yet to be determined.
If the Diamondbacks advance to the division series, they likely would shift one of their starting pitchers into a relief role. Lovullo said Tuesday he’d like to get that starter a chance to work out of the bullpen before the playoffs.
“Finding their way to the bullpen and getting an outing is important because it’s a totally different animal,” Lovullo said. “Getting ready, being ready for five, six innings of a game, that’s a whole new mindset. It is important.”
If Walker is starting Saturday, that would seem to indicate the club is planning to keep him in the rotation, and that either Patrick Corbin or Zack Godley will be moved into the bullpen.
Lovullo, though, said the club hasn’t “gotten that far as to who it is and what the names are. We’ve just been throwing out normal, casual baseball conversations.”
As for why the Sunday starter is listed as TBA, Lovullo said it has to do with the potential wild-card opponent, though he wouldn’t go into specifics.
“Maybe holding back somebody for a bullpen matchup,” Lovullo said. “Without going too much further about Sunday’s starter, we want to make sure we have the exact pieces that we need for Wednesday’s game ready to go. We don’t want to expire anybody that day.”
Either Corbin, Godley or lefty Robbie Ray would be rested enough to pitch on Sunday. It’s possible the team is considering keeping Ray available to pitch in relief in the wild-card game. However, it seems reasonable to think someone could pitch a few innings on Sunday before throwing in relief on Wednesday.
In a perfect world, the Diamondbacks likely would want Ray to start Game 1 of the division series, if they get that far.
The Diamondbacks had right-hander Jon Duplantier and first baseman Kevin Cron at Chase Field on Tuesday to honor them for taking home the organization’s pitcher and player of the year honors, respectively.
Duplantier logged a 1.39 ERA in 136 innings between Low-A Kane County and High-A Visalia, the lowest mark in the minors since Justin Verlander posted a 1.29 ERA in 2005.
“The low numbers kind of came because of the consistency,” Duplantier said. “I’m not saying I’m a master of anything, but I’m trying to master just consistency – knowing what my ball is going to do and trying to get it there.”
Cron made significant strides in improving his batting average and on-base without sacrificing his power numbers. He finished with a .283 average and a .357 on-base and he led the Double-A Southern League with 25 home runs.
“I think I did a really good job of finding out who I was as a hitter, what pitches I can handle and, day-in and day-out, executing a plan,” Cron said. “That was something I did way better than I ever have in my career and something that I feel very confident moving forward with.”
Short hop
The Diamondbacks named the scout section behind home plate after longtime executive Roland Hemond, honoring him during a ceremony during batting practice. “Roland is a living legend in every sense of the word and his contributions to the D-Backs and the game of Major League Baseball are unparalleled,” Diamondbacks CEO Derrick Hall said in a statement.