WINNING TRIP
Greinke leads on mound, at plate as D-Backs take series
MIAMI – Primed with espresso in the clubhouse and led by their ace Zack Greinke on the mound, the plate and bases, the Diamondbacks coasted to a 4-0 victory over the Marlins to wrap up a sensational 8-2 road trip.
It wasn’t exactly “Breakfast at Wimbledon,” but Thursday’s early 9:10 a.m. first pitch (Phoenix time) certainly didn’t stop the Diamondbacks from their month-long trend of getting off to fast starts.
Just seeing a Marlins jersey is enough to wake up Greinke, a Florida native and former tennis prodigy, who has won all six career starts against Miami with an ERA hovering near 1.50. He admitted to an extra cup of coffee, and said his body had gotten adjusted to the Eastern time zone since his afternoon start in Pittsburgh last week.
“I got some good sleep last night and we got to the park late today. I did almost all my scouting the last couple of days,” said Greinke, who threw 103 pitches, 73 for strikes in notching his fifth win in his past six starts.
“All the pitches were working all right, mixed it up and got some breaks.”
Zack Greinke
D-Backs pitcher, on Thursday’s game
“All the pitches were working all right, mixed it up and got some breaks.”
Sprinkling in his pet 68-mph eephus curve and 90-mph pinpoint heater, Greinke (8-5) had the Marlins off balance for seven innings in which he allowed seven singles while fanning six and walking none.
On the heels of last week’s six-inning, two-hit blanking of the Pirates, Greinke ran his scoreless streak to 13 innings.
“He gave us seven incredible innings,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “I thought he was in control just about every inning. … You ask your starter to go that far and hold the opposition down, he did exactly what we wanted him to do.”
Relievers Jorge De La Rosa, Fernando Salas and Andrew Chafin finished off the combined 10-hit shutout, all singles, with two scoreless innings for Arizona’s third whitewash of the season.
But Greinke, an all-around athlete, did it all with two singles, a stolen base, a run scored and an RBI to boost his batting average to a robust .300 (9-for-30).
He’s the first pitcher since Hall of Famer Bob Gibson to have a hit, stolen base and RBI in two games of the same season. Greinke, a career .223 hitter with six homers, also accomplished the feat May 10 against the Nationals.
“There’s a record every game; you just got to look hard enough for it,” said Greinke, who has won the Silver Slugger and four Gold Gloves. “I’ve always liked playing sports. It’s more fun when you’re doing good, so today there was a lot of good results.”
Marlins rookie right-hander Trevor Richards (2-5) was coming off two quality starts in his previous three outings, but he didn’t fool the Diamondbacks, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead after two innings.
Paul Goldschmidt continued his month-long onslaught with a single, his first of three hits to boost his average to .401 over his past 21 games with nine home runs and 22 RBIs.
A rested Jake Lamb singled, and David Peralta followed with an RBI double. Daniel Descalso scored Lamb on a groundout for a 2-0 lead after one. The Diamondbacks have scored 58 runs in the first inning, third-most in the majors.
In the second, Greinke singled and stole second base, his second swipe of the season and it came against Marlins catcher Bryan Holaday, who had thrown out a club-record nine consecutive runners.
Greinke raced home on Goldschmidt’s RBI single for a 3-0 cushion. Holaday was in for Marlins probable AllStar catcher J.T. Realmuto, who sat out the series with a bruised wrist.
“We don’t need to talk about (Greinke’s) hitting,” Goldschmidt cracked. “He’s such a good athlete. You saw how he runs the bases, how good his defense is, what he does on the mound using different speeds and pitches, his command and, of course, his hitting.
“It was nice to get that early lead to set the tone. Zack goes seven scoreless innings, so our offense doesn’t have to do much, and he was half our offense, too.”
Greinke continued to entertain the screaming 12,000-plus summer campers in the sixth when he singled home Nick Ahmed.
“He was just a handful,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of Greinke. “He’s able to do different things with the ball and change gears on you. He’s a baseball player and I don’t say that
about a lot of pitchers. He probably has a better swing than 70 percent of guys in the big leagues and I’m serious about that.”
Lovullo said that Greinke, who now has seven career stolen bases in seven attempts, has a green light.
“Zack’s a different animal. We let him play the game wide open,” Lovullo said. “He’s a gifted athlete.”
The NL West-leading Diamondbacks (47-34) are 20-6 in June, including 6-1 against the NL-worst Marlins, to keep the surging Dodgers in their rear-view mirror.
“We threw away May, but we’ll take June all the time,” Lovullo said after Arizona had won its seventh game in its past eight. “That’s how this game is. It has its ups and downs. You just have to be prepared for them. When you have good moments, embrace them, and when you have tough moments learn from them.
“This is a very tough group and plays as family. That was tested but we came out of (an 8-19) May OK. … I’m very proud of these guys.”