Christian Walker slugged two home runs, Zack Greinke pitched seven scoreless innings, and the Arizona Diamondbacks snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Colorado Rockies with an 8-0 victory Friday night in Phoenix.
Walker gave Arizona a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning on a two-run, opposite-field shot to right. He smacked a three-run homer in a six-run fifth inning for an 8-0 lead. That was Walker's 17th home run of the season and marked his first career game with multiple home runs.
Greinke (10-3) gave up four hits, struck out nine and walked none, relying more than usual on his slow curveball, often inducing swings-and-misses by locating the pitch off the plate at speeds below 70 mph. He heads into his sixth All-Star Game having thrown 14 consecutive scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 2.73.
Greinke, who reached double-digit victories for the 12th consecutive season, struck out Nolan Arenado three times. Greinke has 10 wins before the All-Star break for the fourth time in his career.
Colorado had won 18 of the previous 22 games between the teams.
Jake Lamb led off Arizona's fifth inning with a single, and Nick Ahmed followed with a walk. Alex Avila drove in both with a double just inside the right field line, and he went to third one out later on Jarrod Dyson's bloop single. Ketel Marte's walk to load the bases ended the night for Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela.
Eduardo Escobar greeted reliever Jesus Tinoco with a sacrifice fly for a 5-0 lead before Walker launched a 431-foot blast to center.
Senzatela (7-6) allowed seven runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out one.
Greinke worked around a threat in the third inning, when the Rockies had runners on second and third with one out after Arizona committed two errors on the same play. Greinke then retired Trevor Story on a shallow fly ball and struck out David Dahl.
Arizona reliever Archie Bradley worked two scoreless innings, including striking out the side in the eighth.
The Rockies were shut out for the fourth time this season, the first time since April 11 at San Francisco. Colorado has lost four consecutive games.
--Field Level Media
Colorado | Arizona | |
Antonio Senzatela | Player | Zack Greinke |
Loss | W/L | Win |
4.1 | IP | 7.0 |
1 | Strikeouts | 9 |
7 | Hits | 4 |
14.54 | ERA | 0.00 |
Colorado | Arizona | |
Tony Wolters | Player | Christian Walker |
1 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 5 |
0 | HR | 2 |
1 | TB | 9 |
.333 | Avg | .750 |