Diamondbacks put up 12 against Kansas City

The Arizona Diamondbacks scored six runs off Zack Greinke and another six against the Kansas City bullpen in posting a 12-5 victory Wednesday night over the Royals.

Greinke (8-3, 1.96 ERA) was charged with six runs (four earned) on eight hits in six and two-thirds innings. The 25-year-old ace right-hander was out-pitched by Diamondbacks starter Max Scherzer, who allowed nine hits but limited the host Royals to two runs in six innings.

“Max was good,” Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch said about Scherzer, who allowed a run in the first inning and another in the fifth. “He seemed to get into jams and then pitch out of it and never really let the singles get to him. He gave up a few hits and persevered through having runners on base. So I thought he did a great job of keeping us in the game. You know going into the game every run’s going to be important against Greinke. He (Scherzer) did his part. Every time he got into trouble, he got out of it. When they scored, they scored one run. He was locked in.”

Scherzer (4-4, 3.58 ERA) won for the fourth time in his last seven starts after going winless in his first 13 major-league starts dating back to last year. The 24-year-old right-hander struck out five and walked three.

“I did a good job of keeping the ball on the ground,” Scherzer said. “I think that’s a result of pitching down in the zone. That’s one of the things I focus on is to make sure that I get ground balls.”

After the Royals scored a run in the first on an RBI double by Jose Guillen, the Diamondbacks answered in the second when Chris Young walked, Miguel Montero doubled and Chris Snyder hit a sacrifice fly to center field.

“We fought back,” Hinch said. “We counter-punched. They scored a run and I’m sure they felt confident about having their ace on the mound and being up a run. But it’s 27 outs. They know that; we know that. And we used ours well tonight.”

Montero put the D-backs ahead to stay with an RBI single in the fourth, and the Diamondbacks added two more runs in the inning thanks to a pair of Kansas City errors.

Scherzer pitched out of a two-on, two-out situation in the bottom of the sixth. With the Diamondbacks leading 4-2, Scherzer struck out Billy Butler to end the Kansas City threat.

“I knew it was going to be probably my last hitter, so I gave it all I got,” Scherzer said. “I wanted to start him off with a slider and then just finish him with heaters and reach back for everything I got.”

The Diamondbacks began to pull away in the seventh, when Stephen Drew hit a one-out double and Mark Reynolds walloped a two-out, full-count pitch from Greinke over the fence in left-center field for his 18 th homer of the season.

> Fans can find a great selection of Diamondbacks hats & apparel online through MLB Center and Pro Baseball Fans!

The Diamondbacks (28-38) put the game out of reach with a five-run outburst in the top of the eighth, an inning which was highlighted by a bases-loaded triple by Drew and which also featured RBI singles by Josh Whitesell and Justin Upton.

The D-backs added an unearned run in the top of the ninth, and the Royals scored three times in the bottom of the final inning against Arizona reliever Juan Gutierrez.

“We played better baseball tonight,” Hinch said. “We capitalized on their mistakes. We scored multiple runs in multiple innings and got a much-needed win.”

By: Tom Kessler
MLBcenter.com Arizona Diamondbacks correspondent

> View all of the MLB baseball news articles from ProBaseball-fans.com.