Greinke looks to halt Diamondbacks' slot vs. Rockies (Jul 01, 2017)
PHOENIX --- The Arizona Diamondbacks haven't lost four in a row this season. To avoid this from happening, they need to win Saturday night at home vs. the Colorado Rockies.
Arizona will send All-Star candidate Zack Greinke (9-4, 3.08), to the mound against the Rockies, who broke their eight-game losing streak Friday night with a 6-3 win over the Diamondbacks.
Greinke is 8-5 with a 4.08 ERA in 23 career games, 22 starts, vs. the Rockies. This season, he is 1-1 with a 3.98 ERA against them in three starts.
Greinke won his last start, allowing one earned run in five innings in the Diamondbacks' 6-1 win Monday over Philadelphia.
"He deserves very strong consideration to be an All-Star," manager Torey Lovullo said. "Zack has had a tremendous year. He's been the leader of our staff. He's taken the role of a No. 1 and has allowed other pitchers below him to go out and perform the way they should.
"He's been the pacesetter for us all year long."
For the Rockies (48-34), Tyler Chatwood will make his 17th start of the season. He's hoping for much better results than his last start, when he walked eight batters in a loss to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Chatwood leads the majors with 50 walks, though his ground ball-to-fly ball ratio of 3.06 ranks second in the National League. Manager Bud Black calls Chatwood's 2017 output as "variable."
"I've seen Chatwood very good. I've seen Chatwood not so good," Black said. "What I feel good about is he is going to go out and throw the ball 92 to 97 miles an hour with good movement. He's got a big-league hook. He's got a good slider. He should use his change more, but he's got four pitches.
"When he's on, heads up. When he's off, you might see what we had against the Dodgers. They only got three hits off him, but he walked eight. Not a good combo."
Chatwood has a career record of 5-2 with a 3.94 ERA in nine games, eight starts, vs. the Diamondbacks.
"They have a good lineup," Chatwood said. "They have guys who get on base for (Paul) Goldschmidt and (Jake) Lamb. So, I think the key is to try to get the guys out before them. That way it doesn't turn into problems because they feast when people are on base.
"You have to make sure you execute a lot of pitches against them and no free passes. "You got to attack the zone."
Chatwood was the winning pitcher in the Rockies' 5-2 win over Arizona on May 7 in Denver. In that game, he allowed just two hits and one run.
Pitching in Phoenix, Chatwood has a career record of 2-0 with 2.42 ERA in four starts.
The Rockies were pleased that all the talk about their recent slide ended with their win Friday.
"Our guys are calm," Black said. "Don't worry about our players and their resolve and what they're all about."
