Greinke proves to be thorn in Dodgers' side

June 14th, 2016

PHOENIX -- Along with all of those games Zack Greinke won't be winning for the Dodgers over the next seven years, there also will be the ones he wins against them, like Monday night.
Last year's National League Cy Young runner-up for the Dodgers is now 9-3 for the D-backs with a six-start win streak after he beat his old club, 3-2, with Paul Goldschmidt and Jake Lamb homering off curveballs from Mike Bolsinger, who also was starting against his former team.
Bolsinger didn't get out of the fifth inning while Greinke made it through seven innings with a season-high 119 pitches, containing the Dodgers' offense as so many have lately. The loss, combined with San Francisco's win, left the Dodgers six games out of first in the NL West, their largest deficit of the year.

It was the first time this season the Dodgers faced Greinke, who spent three years in tandem with Clayton Kershaw atop the Dodgers' rotation, only to jump over to Arizona in the offseason for a stunning $206 million free-agent deal, leaving Los Angeles scrambling to put back together a rotation that has never recovered.
Dave Roberts, who missed out on the pleasure of managing Greinke, had the misfortune of managing against him, his club going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
"We left 10 guys on base, but we saw the best of Zack Greinke and obviously he wanted to show well against his former team," said Roberts. "We competed for nine innings and that was good to see.
"He was doing what he does. Working the bottom of the zone, all the quadrants, changing speeds. They stretched him to the most pitches he's made in a couple years and he wanted to get through the seventh inning. We had a couple shots, but he found a way to limit the damage."
Corey Seager slugged his team-high 15th home run and Justin Turner continued to show renewed life with an RBI double, but the rest of the Dodgers' offense couldn't handle Greinke in another tough loss. The Dodgers are 7-13 in one-run games. Of their last 11 losses, eight are by one run, including each of their current three-game losing streak.
The irony of pitching against Greinke, as well as facing Greinke the bat-flipping .290 hitter, wasn't lost on Bolsinger.

"You don't like seeing him at the plate," said Bolsinger, who allowed Greinke a single that led to the winning run after Greinke sent center fielder Joc Pederson to the warning track in the previous at-bat.
"You know, he's unbelievable. I attribute the way I pitched last year to him because I watched the way he went about his business. I made that a big point last year in watching him and Kershaw and the way they play baseball. To see him on the mound definitely fires you up."
Goldschmidt, meanwhile, resumed his manhandling of Dodgers pitching after a brief slump. The first baseman came into the game 1-for-12 this year against the Dodgers, but he came out of the game with 23 career home runs and 66 RBIs in 80 games against them, easily the most among active players.