Diamondbacks’ Zack Greinke ‘solid’ in outing vs. Netherlands

Zack Greinke says his spring trainings usually consist of one really bad start sandwiched around a handful of positive starts, with one outing in which everything comes together. Greinke is still waiting for that one really good one, but he’s encouraged by the fact that, in his eyes, he’s yet to have a bad one.

Greinke took another step in the right direction on Saturday afternoon against the Netherlands’ team for the World Baseball Classic, giving up just one run on six hits across five innings.

“I guess that’s a good thing, where it’s all slowly getting better each time, more so than how it usually is, I guess,” he said. “It would be nice to have a big jump to where it was a lot better, but each start has been a lot better so far.”

Just as encouragingly, Greinke’s velocity, which was down a few miles per hour early in camp, held a little more firmly throughout the game. According to Statcast data, Greinke topped at 91.9 mph, nearly 2 1/2 mph harder than his high 10 days ago. And his average fastball velocity of 90.6 was a couple of ticks above what he’s averaged in his past two starts.

Though Greinke posted solid results against a lineup that included several established major leaguers, including Xander Bogaerts, Didi Gregorius, Jonathan Schoop and Andrelton Simmons, he said there was no additional excitement facing that kind of team. The opposite, in fact.

“Less, if anything – less excitement,” he said. “I’d rather face a real lineup that you have to face in the regular season.”

Despite the diminished velocity, Greinke has only had one outing in which he was knocked around. That came two starts ago vs. Mexico’s WBC team, a game in which he gave up several hard-hit balls. He threw well in his previous outing against a collection of Diamondbacks minor leaguers.

Greinke has two starts to go before he’s scheduled to face the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day. He was asked to assess where he thinks he is in terms of being ready for that start.

“I’d like for it to be better, for sure,” he said. “But it’s, I guess, solid. All the pitches could be a little crisper. The location could be a little better. But I feel pretty good out there for the most part. But not quite to where I want it to be.”

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Positive steps

Right-handers Jake Barrett and Rubby De La Rosa and left-hander Steve Hathaway all threw their first bullpen sessions of camp on Saturday morning.

De La Rosa’s was perhaps the most significant, if only because of his history of elbow problems and the steps he took in order to avoid a second Tommy John surgery, including undergoing two rounds of stem-cell therapy injections over the past six months.

“One hundred percent,” he said, when asked how he felt. “I feel happy about it. All the work I did in the past, finally I can see the result. I feel 100 percent ready to go. I’ll just keep working on moving forward.”

De La Rosa won’t be ready for Opening Day, but if he continues to progress he might not be ready too long after, particularly since the Diamondbacks are making him into a reliever, meaning he won’t need to be stretched out before returning.

“I feel so confident in my mind right now,” De La Rosa said. “I’m just waiting for my time.”

Barrett said he felt good, though, like De La Rosa, he, too, is likely to open the season on the disabled list, according to manager Torey Lovullo.

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Short hops

• Center fielder A.J. Pollock is inching his way back into action, with Lovullo saying that Pollock’s first game action since tweaking his groin last weekend will likely come as the designated hitter in a minor-league game. When that happens, however, is not clear. “It’ll be within the next several days if everything checks out the way it’s supposed to,” Lovullo said.
• Catcher Josh Thole, who hurt his left hamstring running the bases on Wednesday night, suffered a “pretty significant” tear and is expected to be lost for the year, Lovullo said. Thole, in camp on a minor-league deal, was planning to seek a second opinion regarding the possibility of surgery.

Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.