Greinke wins 11th as D-backs down Reds

PHOENIX -- For the second week in a row, the D-backs gave Zack Greinke the ball with hopes of ending a three-game losing streak. Once again, he delivered.
Greinke picked up his 11th win of the season on Friday night as the D-backs topped the Reds, 6-3, at Chase Field. Greinke struck out seven while surrendering four hits with one walk and seven strikeouts over seven scoreless innings. With the win, Greinke is 9-0 at Chase Field this season, surpassing Patrick Corbin's franchise record for most consecutive wins at home to start a season.
"After a tough series in L.A., we had the right guy step up in Zack Greinke," Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. "He let us get our legs under us offensively, and went out there and just threw zeros up all night. Shutdown innings after we scored runs and allowed us to get out to a 6-0 lead. When a No. 1 guy is on board, you really start to appreciate these moments."

Greinke, a career .210 hitter, helped his own cause with an RBI single in the fourth to score Brandon Drury. Three D-backs players delivered RBI doubles, and Drury went 2-for-2 with two doubles, two walks and two runs. Reds starter Tim Adleman tossed five innings and struck out four while surrendering four runs (three earned). Adam Duvall tallied two of the four hits that Cincinnati struck against Greinke.
• Adleman identifies flaw to improve upon

"He was using his slider very well," Duvall said of Greinke. "I think a couple of times, he just painted away. It's a pitch that looks like it's going to be down, but stays right there. I felt like he started spotting up as the game went on, which made it more difficult to hit, obviously."
Joey Votto smashed his National League-best 25th home run of the season off of T.J. McFarland in the ninth to cut the lead, and Scott Schebler added a solo shot off of Jake Barrett later in the inning.

With the tying run on deck, Fernando Rodney came on with two outs in the ninth and forced Tucker Barnhart to ground out to second to end the game.
• Lovullo sticking with Rodney as closer

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Seeing double: Jeff Mathis set the tone for Arizona early and pushed the D-backs out to an early 2-0 lead with a lined grounder down the left-field line that found the corner. That double scored Drury, who two batters earlier had lined his own RBI double, from second.

Goldy goes deep: Three innings after Billy Hamilton robbed him of extra-bases with a stellar running catch, Paul Goldschmidt responded with a 401-foot homer to right field that landed next to the Cincinnati bullpen. Goldschmidt's solo shot -- which Statcast™ projected at a 102.3 mph exit velocity -- gave the D-backs a 4-0 lead.

"It was good," Goldschmidt said. "Was just trying to get another run on there or get on base and I was able to hit it good enough and get it out of there. I had two strikes out was trying to protect -- it ended up being a fastball up the middle and I was able to get enough of it."
QUOTABLE
"He did a really nice job. He limited what we were able to do. We were never really able to get terribly excited against him." -- Reds manager Bryan Price, on Greinke
HAMILTON TAKES HIT FROM GOLDSCHMIDT
Before he cleared the fence in the fifth inning, Goldschmidt powered an opposite-field drive to right-center field in the first inning. But he came up empty when Hamilton made a very long run to catch the ball as he crashed into the wall. According to Statcast™, it was a four-star catch. It had a 35 percent catch probability as Hamilton had to cover 103 feet in 5.3 seconds. His Sprint speed was 30 feet per second.

WHAT'S NEXT
Reds: When the series resumes at 10:10 p.m. ET on Saturday night at Chase Field, rookie Luis Castillo will make his fourth start, still seeking his first big league win. In a 5-3 defeat to the Rockies on Monday, Castillo gave up four earned runs and nine hits over 5 2/3 innings with one walk and eight strikeouts.
D-backs: The D-backs hope to build on Greinke's strong outing for the second game of the series at 7:10 p.m. MST on Saturday night. Arizona will send Taijuan Walker to the mound, fresh off a July 2 start in which he gave up one run to the Rockies over seven innings in a no-decision.
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