Zack Greinke, Paul Goldschmidt, D-Backs beat Giants

SAN FRANCISCO – Paul Goldschmidt could sense the frustration coming from the San Francisco Giants hitters on Saturday night. He remembers the feeling. For years, he was on the opposite side of a Zack Greinke outing.

“He hits his spots and it feels like he never makes a mistake,” Goldschmidt said after Greinke fired eight innings in a 2-0 shutout of the Giants at AT&T Park. “If he does, then you have to hit that mistake because you’re not going to get many of them. Being on defense, I sort of picture myself in the box or our team facing him and it’s like, when he’s on, you know that frustrated feeling.”

Behind Greinke’s dominance and a two-run home run from Goldschmidt in the first inning, the Diamondbacks won for the fourth consecutive day. They inched another game closer to clinching a wild-card spot, lowering their magic number to six. They moved a season-high 25 games over .500 at 87-62.

“We’ve been playing really good,” Greinke said. “We had a nice winning streak (13 games), and even the couple losses we’ve had we played good. We haven’t made many mistakes at all. Hopefully we can keep that up. That’s a positive if you’re not making mistakes.”

As Goldschmidt said, Greinke rarely makes mistakes. He seemed to make even fewer on Saturday night, though he noted he was fortunate a handful of hard-hit balls went for outs, namely two drives by Pablo Sandoval that were tracked down by Diamondbacks outfielders.

Greinke threw strikes with 70 of his 107 pitches. He went to a three-ball count just four times, including once in an at-bat when he appeared to be pitching around Joe Panik.

Only one Giants baserunner reached as far as second base, and that came via an error by Diamondbacks shortstop Kris Negron to start the sixth inning. Greinke worked out of the jam.

He did not think his stuff was particularly dominant, but his command of all four pitches, he said, might have been as good as it’s been in a while, especially his change-up, a pitch he said he has struggled to locate recently.

“That’s what makes him so good,” Goldschmidt said. “He knows how to pitch. He mixes up his pitches. He uses all four of his pitches to both sides of the plate, up and down. His command is so good. He’s been doing it for a long time.”

The evening’s one blemish, at least from manager Torey Lovullo’s perspective, might have come in the fifth, when Greinke tried to take third on a ground ball to short, diving headfirst into a tag. Not only was it a poor baserunning decision – it was in clear violation of Lovullo’s anti-headfirst slide dictum.

“I wanted to go out there and drag him off the field and tell him never do that again,” Lovullo said. “But Zack knows. He knows he’s too important for those moments to happen.”

Said Greinke: “I try not to do it, but I’ve slid headfirst probably more than I should have in my career.”

The bright side of that was that Greinke had been on base with his second hit of the night. He doubled twice off Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner, turning the tables on a pitcher who had taken him deep twice in his big league career.

“I know he was very focused on his offensive approach tonight,” Lovullo said. “What he does offensively doesn’t surprise me. He has a good feel for the barrel.”

Goldschmidt came to the plate with one on and two out in the first against Bumgarner. No hitter in the majors has more career hits against Bumgarner than Goldschmidt, a fact that likely comes as no surprise to the Giants, who have grown accustomed to Goldschmidt battering their best pitchers.

Goldschmidt got a first-pitch fastball over the plate and clobbered it, sending it out to left-center field for his 35th homer of the year, leaving him one shy of his career high from 2013.

“As good as Madison is, you can’t spot him strikes,” Goldschmidt said. “I was trying to get something in the middle of the plate and trying to hit it hard.”

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

Sunday’s game

Diamondbacks at Giants

When: 1:05 p.m.

Where: AT&T Park, San Francisco.

Pitchers: Diamondbacks RHP Taijuan Walker (9-7, 3.32) vs. Giants RHP Chris Stratton (2-3, 4.07).

TV/Radio: FSAZ/KTAR-AM (620), KHOV-FM (105.1).

Walker has given up just four runs in his past 28 2/3 innings (1.26 ERA) spanning his past five starts. … He’s also been a contributor at the plate in recent games. He has a hit in three straight games and six of his past nine. … In four starts against the Giants this year, he has a 3.86 ERA. OF Jarrett Parker is 4 for 14 (.286) with one double, one triple and one home run off Walker. … Stratton had a strong August, posting a 1.52 ERA in 23 2/3 innings in four starts. … He did not pitch well against the Rockies on Sept. 4, allowing three runs in four innings, then logged just 1/3 of an inning in his last start before leaving because of a lengthy rain/lightning delay. … He faced the Diamondbacks on Aug. 27, giving up two runs in six innings.

Coming up

Monday: At San Diego, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Patrick Corbin (14-12, 4.06) vs. Padres RHP Luis Perdomo (7-10, 4.61).

Tuesday: At San Diego, 7:10 p.m., Diamondbacks RHP Zack Godley (8-7, 3.00) vs. Padres LHP Travis Wood (1-3, 6.91).

Wednesday: At San Diego, 6:10 p.m., Diamondbacks LHP Robbie Ray (14-5, 2.74) vs. Padres RHP Dinelson Lamet (7-7, 4.15).