SAN DIEGO – The curveball flipped out of Zack Greinke’s hand and arched downward, parabola-like, toward the lower, outside corner of the strike zone. Greinke hopped off the mound and nodded his approval toward the San Diego Padres’ Erick Aybar.
Greinke was impressed Aybar was able to lay off the pitch, but he figured if he followed it up with a similar one, he might get him to chase. But the breaking ball he threw wasn’t barely off the plate, like he wanted it. It was down the middle. And Aybar destroyed it.
Aybar’s eighth-inning solo homer was the only blemish for Greinke and the Diamondbacks in a game they would lose 1-0, a breezy, two-hour, 13-minute outcome that snapped a three-game win streak and set up a rubber match with the Padres on Thursday evening.