Greinke roughed up in spring finale
March 31, 2010
PEORIA, Ariz. (AP)—Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke(notes) was touched up for fiveearned runs, six hits and three walks in his final spring start by the San DiegoPadres, who played to a 8-8 tie with the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday.
Jon Garland(notes), San Diego’s opening day starter, allowed two runs and four hitsin five innings.
Chase Headley(notes) homered in the second inning off Greinke and also had an RBIdouble to finish the spring with 23 runs batted in.
Scott Hairston(notes) also homered off Greinke, who worked 5 1-3 innings.
Greinke threw 54 strikes in 94 pitches and ended spring training with a 3-0record and a 4.29 earned run average.
He went 16-8 with a big league best 2.16 ERA last season for the last-placeRoyals.
The Padres are 15-2-2 in their last 19 games this spring after starting witha 2-8 record.
“We’re a good team,” Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez(notes) said. “Everygame we got out there, we’re going to go out there with the mentality that wecan win this. Not because we want to believe that but it’s because we can.
“The way we’ve finished this spring, we’ve lost one or two times in thelast week. And everybody’s leaving their starters in for seven innings. It’s notlike we’ve been winning at the end.”
Will Venable(notes) hit an opposite-field three-run homer for San Diego.
NOTES: The Padres left-handed pitcher Wade LeBlanc(notes) to Triple-A Portland andawarded the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation to Clayton Richard(notes) and MatLatos(notes). Manager Bud Black also said the team is likely to place left-handedreliever Joe Thatcher(notes) on the disabled list to start the season. Thatcher, whohas a sore shoulder, played catch on Wednesday but it’s unclear when he willthrow in the bullpen.
