 allowed two runs and four hits with six strikeouts. He won despite surrendering his seventh and eighth home runs of the season.A good hitter, Greinke doubled, singled and scored twice.Ketel Marte and Christian Walker also homered for the Diamondbacks.Manuel Margot led off the game with a home run and Fernando Tatis Jr. also connected for NL West-leading San Diego. The 20-year-old Tatis homered for the second straight day and has five in his rookie season.Padres starter Eric Lauer (2-2) gave up three runs on eight hits over five innings.Greinke led off the bottom of the third with a bloop single and two outs later came home on Marte's homer. Greinke made a nice defensive play in the fourth, starting a double play on a comebacker.Greinke doubled in the fifth, took third on a wild pitch and scored when Ildemaro Vargas grounded a one-out double past first base.PITCHER MOVESSan Diego called up RHPs Phil Maton and Luis Perdomo from Triple-A El Paso before the game and optioned right-handers Gerardo Reyes and Robert Stock to El Paso. Reyes got a win in his big league debut on Friday. Stock appeared as recently as Saturday and has pitched in seven games.TRAINER'S ROOMPadres: 3B Manny Machado and 1B Wil Myers weren't in the starting lineup Sunday, with Machado missing his first game of the season. Myers pinch hit for Lauer in the sixth.UP NEXTPadres: Return home for to open a series with the Colorado Rockies on Monday, sending LHP Joey Lucchesi to the mound. Lucchesi (2-1, 4.40 ERA) made 26 starts last season as a rookie.Diamondbacks: Get Monday off before opening a series in Atlanta. LHP Robbie Ray (0-1, 3.52) is scheduled to start Tuesday's opener, and he has allowed three or fewer hits in three straight starts to begin the season.---More MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/-Sports)
Greinke, D-backs look to avoid sweep by Padres All that stands between the San Diego Padres and a four-game sweep of the host Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday is Zack Greinke.And that is a formidable hurdle.Greinke (1-1, 7.16 ERA) is 12-2 in his career against the Padres with a 2.29 ERA in 23 starts. He faced San Diego on April 2, holding the team to three runs on six hits with 10 strikeouts in six innings.Not to mention, he was dangerous with the bat as well, homering twice in a game for the first time in his career. His first of those blasts came off Padres left-hander Eric Lauer (2-1, 4.76 ERA), who again will be his opponent Sunday afternoon.Lauer's only loss this season was in that game, as he allowed four runs on nine hits and a walk in five innings. Greinke tagged him for a three-run blast before adding his second home run off right-handed reliever Adam Warren.After the game, Greinke made more of his pitching performance than his offense."Homers don't mean much now," he said. "It feels like everyone is hitting homers. The pitching, everything was way better. My pitches were sharper in San Diego. The command was better. It wasn't perfect, but it was way, way better." Better is relative to Greinke's first start, when he served up four homers and seven runs in 3 2/3 innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers. San Diego tagged him for two more blasts on April 2, and the 35-year-old has been taken deep six times in his first 16 1/3 innings this season.Meanwhile, the 23-year-old Lauer has allowed nine runs on 17 hits and five walks in 17 innings across his first three starts. All the damage has come in his last two outings as he pitched six shutout innings against the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day.Though the Diamondbacks have lost five of their last six, their lineup still poses a serious threat. They displayed as much in Saturday's loss, scoring four runs in the sixth inning against the Padres bullpen in what ended as a 5-4 San Diego victory after Franmil Reyes homered in the seventh."These guys have been hitting left-handed pitching really well," said Padres manager Andy Green of Arizona. "For Eric, it's nothing different from the last game -- avoiding the big hit, which is what he's done so well the majority of the time he's been in the big leagues." Sunday will mark Lauer's fourth career start against the Diamondbacks. He is 1-1 with a 2.76 ERA in his first three outings.Meanwhile, the Padres enter Sunday's game with an 11-5 record and a three-game lead in the National League West. The last two times the Padres were at least 11-5 after 16 games were 1998 and 1984. They went on to win the National League pennant in each of those years.--Field Level Media
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