Greinke one-hits Cleveland through 6 in D-backs’ romp

March 27, 2018 John MLB 0

PHOENIX — Zack Greinke looked ready for the regular season.

The Arizona ace pitched one-hit ball over six innings in the Diamondbacks’ 7-0 exhibition victory over the Cleveland Indians on Monday night.

“I wish this one counted,” he said. “… That was definitely the best outing of the spring.”

Greinke won’t pitch opening day after tightness in his right groin during an outing March 14 threw him off schedule. Barring any setback, he is expected to make his regular-season debut Saturday night in the finale of Arizona’s three-game, season-opening series against Colorado.

Paul Goldschmidt and Jake Lamb homered off Indians starter Carlos Carrasco. Carrasco, an 18-game winner last season and the No. 2 pitcher in Cleveland’s rotation, allowed six runs and five hits in four innings. He struck out seven and walked two.

“Carrasco started out good,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Then he got to the fourth inning and he tried to locate instead of trusting his stuff and he kind of paid for it. The good news is it’s spring training. He came out of it healthy as all get out. He’s raring to go.”

Greinke retired the first 10 batters before giving up his only hit, a single by Rajai Davis under the glove of the diving third baseman Lamb in the third inning. The only other batter to reach base against Greinke did so on a fielder’s choice. Greinke threw 75 pitches, 55 strikes. He fanned four with no walks.

“He controlled the entire environment tonight,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “He set a great tone for us. We got off to an early lead with the home run and Zack was in typical Zack form — fastballs on both sides of the plate downhill, secondary stuff he went and got anytime he wanted. We had to throw him an extra inning to get to 75 pitches.”

Lamb led off the Arizona second with a home run to the right of the swimming pool in right to make it 1-0. After A.J. Pollock led off the fourth with a walk, Goldschmidt hit the first pitch he saw into the left field seats and the Diamondbacks led 3-0.

Archie Bradley, Brad Boxberger and Yoshihisa Hirano — the three candidates for the Arizona closer’s job — each threw a hitless inning.

It was the first time the Diamondbacks pitchers encountered baseballs that had been stored in their humidor to try to add moisture in the dry desert air.

“I was wondering if that was why some of those balls were pop-ups instead of doubles or something,” Greinke said. “I didn’t see how far a couple of our homers went but it was nice seeing that you could still drive the ball.”

MARTE’S MONEY

A person close to the situation says infielder Ketel Marte and the Diamondbacks have agreed on a five-year, $24 million extension. The deal includes another two-year club option that could be worth $22 million. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not been announced.

Marte filled in well when shortstops Nick Ahmed and Chris Owings went down with injuries a year ago and was 7 for 17 at the plate in four postseason games, including a pair of triples in the wild-card win over Colorado.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Arizona officially placed OF Steven Souza Jr. (pec strain) and RH reliever Randall Delgado (left oblique strain) on the disabled list.

UP NEXT

The Indians and Diamondbacks play their preseason finale Tuesday in Phoenix. RH Taijuan Walker starts for Arizona, RH Trevor Bauer for Cleveland.

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