Heat Waved
Fansided

Diamondbacks Pitching Fuels a Sweep of the Giants

By Matthew Mcclure

Apr 15, 2016; San Diego, CA, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zack Greinke (42) pitches during the fourth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 15, 2016; San Diego, CA, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zack Greinke (42) pitches during the fourth inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit

For the first time in franchise history, the Diamondbacks swept a four game set against the Giants in San Francisco. The D-backs are now sitting above .500 holding a record of 9-8 and are only 1.5 games back from the Dodgers.

Jake Lamb started off the series with a bang on Monday night, as he hit a homerun in the 9th off of Levi’s Landing to send the game into extras, then followed that with a RBI double in the 11th for his third hit of the night.

Aside from the first game, in which the Diamondbacks pulled off the 9-7 victory in extra innings, the Diamondbacks showed great pitching depth. Robbie Ray was masterful in his start, striking out eight batters over six innings while tossing a shutout.

In a pitchers duel Wednesday night, Zack Greinke outmatched the ever dangerous Madison Bumgarner in his best start of the season. The breezes off McCovey Cove was blowing in his favor as Greinke went 6.2 innings with seven strikeouts while only yielding one run. Greinke’s first win in a Diamondbacks uniform came on a night where command was key yet again as he only walked one batter and threw 70 of his 102 pitches for strikes.

Shelby Miller continued to struggle since coming to the Diamondbacks walking five batters in just two innings leading the way to an early exit for the second time in a row. Nonetheless, Tyler Wagner came through out of the bullpen tossing five scoreless innings aiding the defeat of Johnny Cueto in a 6-2 victory for the Diamondbacks.

While the Diamondbacks had shown that they had some bullpen problems early this season, that did not seem to be a problem in this series as their pitching staff kept the Giants to under two runs in three out of the four games.

Paul Goldschmidt seemed to find his way a bit as he raised his average to .237 and had 5 hits in the series icnluding 3 RBI. Yasmany Tomas kept up his hot hitting as he slapped a 439′ drive off Johnny Cueto to help secure the final game of the series. His average improved to .288 after the four game set, further proving that he is a bat the Diamondbacks need in their lineup.

The Diamondbacks return to Chase Field for a weekend series against the Pirates, who are coming off a series where they lost two of three to the Padres. Look for the Diamondbacks bats to stay hot in this series as the Pirates pitching has been struggling aside from their ace Gerrit Cole.

Home/Arizona Diamondbacks