Wednesday night’s West coast match-up between the Diamondbacks and Giants at AT&T Park will feature two starters who are not only good at pitching, but hitting as well. Zack Greinke will start for the D-Backs opposite the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner. Greinke has six career home runs, including two last year, while Bumgarner has 12 career round-trippers, including five last season and one already in 2016. Since he came into the league in 2004, only six pitchers have hit more homers than Greinke: Bumgarner, Carlos Zambrano, Yovani Gallardo, Travis Wood, Micah Owings, and Dontrelle Willis. Opponents of the DH, such as yours truly, will find Wednesday’s game particularly intriguing.
Pitching-wise, both have been slow to start, but it’s nothing to worry about -- especially this early in the season. Greinke has a 6.75 ERA over his first three starts, having allowed 22 hits and five walks with 15 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings. Bumgarner has a 4.50 ERA on 19 hits and seven walks with 21 strikeouts in 16 innings.
Greinke inked a six-year, $206.5 million contract with the D-Backs in December, representing one of their two big offseason additions along with Shelby Miller. Miller has also struggled, and it’s been the club’s young pitchers -- Patrick Corbin and Robbie Ray -- who have impressed thus far. Combined over six starts, Corbin and Ray have a composite 2.37 ERA with 31 strikeouts and 15 walks in 38 innings. One can almost set his or her watch to Greinke and Miller eventually figuring things out, so if Corbin and Ray can keep it up over a full season, the D-Backs will be in a good place.
The rest of Wednesday’s action...
Seattle Mariners (Taijuan Walker) @ Cleveland Indians (Danny Salazar), 6:10 PM EST
New York Mets (Bartolo Colon) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Jeremy Hellickson), 7:05 PM EST
Oakland Athletics (Kendall Graveman) @ New York Yankees (Nathan Eovaldi), 7:05 PM EST
Toronto Blue Jays (R.A. Dickey) @ Baltimore Orioles (Ubaldo Jimenez), 7:05 PM EST
Los Angeles Dodgers (Ross Stripling) @ Atlanta Braves (Julio Teheran), 7:10 PM EST
Tampa Bay Rays (Chris Archer) @ Boston Red Sox (Rick Porcello), 7:10 PM EST
Washington Nationals (Joe Ross) @ Miami Marlins (Wei-Yin Chen), 7:10 PM EST
Detroit Tigers (Jordan Zimmermann) @ Kansas City Royals (Ian Kennedy), 7:15 PM EST
Houston Astros (Doug Fister) @ Texas Rangers (Cole Hamels), 8:05 PM EST
Minnesota Twins (Tommy Milone) @ Milwaukee Brewers (Jimmy Nelson), 8:10 PM EST
Pittsburgh Pirates (Jeff Locke) @ San Diego Padres (Drew Pomeranz), 10:10 PM EST
