Diamondbacks' Greinke flirts with history against Pirates
The Arizona Diamondbacks were inspired by Zack Greinke against the Pittsburgh Pirates in MLB on Thursday.
Zack Greinke was six outs shy of recording the third no-hitter in Arizona Diamondbacks history in Thursday's 2-1 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The $206.5million man for Arizona entered the seventh inning with 11 strikeouts and one walk on 90 pitches but allowed a solo homer to Gregory Polanco, who nearly went deep on the second pitch of the at-bat before crushing a slider an estimated 382 feet to right field on Greinke's 95th pitch of the night.
Greinke retired the next three Pirates batters to finish his start at eight innings on 107 pitches as he lowered his MLB ERA to 2.79.
The Colorado Rockies outlasted the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-7, the Toronto Blue Jays were too good for the Seattle Mariners 7-2, the Kansas City Royals blanked the Tampa Bay Rays 6-0, the Detroit Tigers beat the Los Angeles Angels 7-1 and the Boston Red Sox accounted for the Milwaukee Brewers 4-1.
Elsewhere, the Minnesota Twins trumped the Chicago White Sox 7-6, the San Diego Padres lost 5-2 to the Texas Rangers, the Houston Astros edged the New York Yankees 3-2, the Cincinnati Reds defeated the San Francisco Giants by the same scoreline, while the Baltimore Orioles' game against the Washington Nationals was postponed.
KEUCHEL FLEXES HIS MUSCLES
Dallas Keuchel struck out nine Yankees batters over six innings of work, allowing one unearned run on five hits and lowering his ERA to 1.69. Keuchel moved to 6-0 in the 3-2 win and appears to be returning to his 2015 Cy Young form as Houston improved to an MLB-best 24-11.
Fellow southpaw Jason Vargas pitched seven strong innings of three-hit ball in the Royals' win over the Rays. The comeback of the year candidate is now 5-1 with a 1.01 ERA.
RYU STRUGGLES IN RETURN
The Dodgers activated pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu from the 10-day disabled list (hip) for Thursday's start against the Rockies in Coors Field, but the left-handed pitcher looked far from 100 per cent. Ryu allowed 10 runs (five earned) with six walks and a balk as he struggled to make it through four innings of work.
NAPOLI ENDS IT
Mike Napoli hit a pair of 430-foot-plus home runs against the Padres at Globe Life Park in Arlington, but his second one gave the Rangers a walk-off win.
METS AT BREWERS
Matt Harvey (2-2, 5.14 ERA) makes his first start for the New York Mets since being suspended for a violation of team rules. Harvey is 0-2 with a 11.17 ERA in his last two starts and could be in danger of being sent down to the minors should another poor performance come against the Brewers on Friday.