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Snap Judgments: MLB Game of the Week (Astros vs. Diamondbacks, 08.14.17)

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Sammantha-Maria Herbaugh/ALOST
Former Houston Astro J.D. Martinez (in middle) helped his current team, Arizona, to the win today as he hit an RBI double in the sixth to give the Diamondbacks a 2-0 lead. (Sammantha-Maria Herbaugh/ALOST)
Former Houston Astro J.D. Martinez (28, middle) helped his current team, the Diamondbacks, to the win today as he hit an RBI double in the sixth to give Arizona a 2-0 lead against Houston. (Sammantha-Maria Herbaugh/ALOST)

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MLB: Houston Astros at Arizona Diamondbacks (08.14.17)

 

PHOENIX — Just as soon as the Diamondbacks’ recent play made teams behind them in the Wild Card race seem as if they are within touching distance, Zack Greinke went out on the mound on Monday night and was virtually untouchable to provide his team a much-needed victory.

Greinke struck out nine Astros hitters over 6.2 scoreless innings as the Diamondbacks defeated Houston Astros in the first game of a two-game series at Chase Field. The win allowed the D-backs to move five clear games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the race to avoid the cutoff for one of the two National League Wild Card spots, which Arizona has had a hold of for the majority of the season.

Though both teams came into the night slumping, Arizona nine losses in its 15 contests put into legitimate question whether they can hold on for the final month and a half for a Wild Card sport. As long as they have Greinke pitching like tonight on every fifth day, that task will be a little easier. Against the best-hitting team in the Majors, Greinke baffled Astros hitters all game long, especially with his off-speed pitches. Whenever Greinke did find himself in trouble – which was not a lot of times – Arizona’s infield defense was able to turn three double plays behind him to squash any threats.

Probably the biggest indicator of Greinke’s dominance was that a third of Greinke’s punch outs came against the league’s leading hitter and two-time batting champion, Jose Altuve, only the third time in his career that he struck out three times in a game.

“There’s a couple of guys on every team – and he’s one of those guys – where you don’t even try to strike them out because you’re wasting your time if you do,” Greinke said afterward. “That’s kind of what happened today. I wasn’t trying to. But it just kind of happened. I don’t think it’d happened very often if we faced each other another 100 times.”

The only run Arizona would need came in the second inning, when Daniel Descalso and Ketel Marte hit back-to-back two-out doubles, with the latter scoring Descalso for the first run of the game. Back-to-back doubles also led to a run in the sixth inning, when Paul Goldschmidt and former Astro J.D.
Martinez hit consecutive two-baggers to double the D-backs’ tally and lead.

Collin McHugh, making his fourth start since coming off the disabled list, had his best start since his absence despite getting the loss, going 5.2 innings and striking out six while allowing both runs in the game on six hits.

*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from today’s game, with all photos taken by Arizona-based photographer Sammantha-Maria Herbaugh. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 10 pictures in total.

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