Diamondbacks at Blue Jays
In the midst of playing 20 of 26 games away from home, the Arizona Diamondbacks saw their offense break out of a slump with three home runs in the opener of a 10-game road trip in Toronto. The Diamondbacks doubled their run total from the previous three games with an 8-2 victory Friday and hope to carry the momentum into Saturday afternoon's matchup versus the Blue Jays.
Kevin Cron was leading the minor leagues with 21 homers and 62 RBIs when he was promoted two weeks ago and finally smacked his first one in the majors, a three-run blast that was the decisive blow for Arizona. David Peralta also homered as part of a three-hit night and is 5-for-9 with four RBIs over the past two games for the Diamondbacks, who had lost 12 of their previous 18. Toronto managed only five hits to fall to 3-12 over the past 15 games and its punchless offense has been held to two runs or fewer 17 times in the past 33 contests. Teoscar Hernández homered in the series opener for the Blue Jays, who will send Aaron Sanchez to the mound while Arizona counters with Zack Greinke.
TV: 3:07 p.m. ET, FS Arizona, Sportsnet (Toronto)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Diamondbacks RH Zack Greinke (6-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Blue Jays RH Aaron Sanchez (3-6, 3.95)
Greinke is coming off his shortest outing since Opening Day, giving up four runs and seven hits over four innings while dealing with neck stiffness in a no-decision against the New York Mets. That ended a string of 11 consecutive quality starts for the 35-year-old, who is winless in his last three turns after going 6-0 in his previous nine outings. Greinke, who has flustered Randal Grichuk (2-for-10) and Freddy Galvis (5-for-21), is 3-2 with a 3.67 ERA on the road despite a .211 batting average against.
Sanchez has been hindered by blister issues through his career, forcing him to exit a start after three innings on May 17, and had an abbreviated outing 10 days later due to a fingernail issue that also limited him to three innings. He was able to make it through six innings last time out at Colorado, taking the loss after giving up four runs on seven hits to fall to 0-5 over his last seven starts. Sanchez won his lone career start against the Diamondbacks with seven innings of one-run ball in 2016.
WALK-OFFS
1. Diamondbacks OF Adam Jones (hamstring) was not in the lineup for the second straight game.
2. Grichuk is 6-for-16 during a four-game hitting streak.
3. Diamondbacks 1B Christian Walker had a run-scoring double Friday, his seventh RBI in eight games.