Sedona Red Recap: Miller nabs win as Diamondbacks rally yet again

PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks don’t necessarily need Shelby Miller to be great in 2017. They don’t even need him to be as good as he was during the first few years of his career when his ERA hovered in the 3.00 range and he appeared in an All-Star Game.

They just need him to be better than he was in 2016. Significantly better, if possible.

It didn’t look like that was going to be the case against the Cleveland Indians early on Friday, but the big righty was able to pull it together after a rough start and find a groove. Meanwhile, the offense just kept rolling, as Arizona cruised to 4-1 on the year with a 7-3 win in front of 22,443 fans at Chase Field.

Not only did the D-backs pick up another victory, they handed the defending AL champs their first defeat of the season in the process. And Miller got the “W” himself after needing seven starts to accomplish that feat a year ago.

Making his first appearance of the season, the 26-year old hurler got into trouble right away. He served up a home run to Francisco Lindor — the second hitter he faced- – then surrendered a double to Edwin Encarnacion on a well-hit ball down the left field line just two batters later.

Miller managed to get out of the first trailing by just one run, but he promptly loaded the bases with no outs to begin the second. A conference on the mound settled him down a little, as he retired three of the next four batters.

Problem is, the one guy he didn’t retire was Carlos Santana, who singled in a pair of runs.

From there, though, Miller seemed to turn a corner. His final stat line of three earned runs on five hits and three walks over 5.1 innings is hardly the stuff Cy Young winners are made of, but he did fan seven and retired 10 Cleveland hitters in a row at one point.

In fact, he only allowed one more hit after the Santana single.

Normally, that might not be enough to come out on top, but the Arizona bats are on fire right now. The D-backs have allowed the first two runs in every game this season, but have rallied for the victory in all but one of those contests.

Seven different Arizona batters picked up at least a hit, with four of them delivering multi-hit performances. Paul Goldschmidt, Yasmany Tomas and Brandon Drury each drove in a pair of runs, while Goldschmidt and Jake Lamb scored twice.

Through the first five games of the season, Torey Lovullo’s group is averaging 6.8 runs per contest.

THE GOOD

-The D-backs did most of their damage in the fifth, scoring five runs – all with two outs – on five hits.

-The Arizona bullpen got the job done, tossing 3.2 shutout innings. Tom Wilhelmsen and Randall Delgado combined to allow just one hit and one walk while retiring 11 Cleveland batters.

-Drury extended his hitting streak to nine games, dating back to 2016.

-This is the fourth time in franchise history that the D-backs have started a season 4-1 or better. They did it in 2000, 2012 and 2013 as well.

THE BAD

-Considering all the scrutiny Miller is under, allowing the HR before most fans had even settled into their seats wasn’t ideal. But his ability to fight back after that is something new that we didn’t see much of last season.

-Miller squared around to bunt in the fifth, only to get hit up high by a Josh Tomlin pitch. He stayed in the game, though, and came around to score what proved to be the winning run.

STAT OF THE GAME

34: The total number of runs scored by the D-backs this season, the most in the Majors. To put that in perspective, the second-place club is six runs behind them.

HE SAID IT

“Anytime you win a game – it doesn’t matter how you do it – we’re going to celebrate it and feel it and touch it and enjoy it and come out and try to do it again tomorrow.” – Torey Lovullo

NOTED

-The first 20,000 fans in attendance on Saturday will receive a Jake Lamb bobblehead with the Arizona Sports logo on it.

UP NEXT

These two teams will meet again for game two of this three-game set on Saturday at Chase Field. Zack Greinke will make his second start of the season for Arizona, while Cleveland counters with former D-back Trevor Bauer. First pitch is set for 5:10 p.m., with coverage beginning at 4:30 on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

Greinke (0-0) took the mound in the opener against Madison Bumgarner and the San Francisco Giants. He scattered four hits and two earned runs over five innings but didn’t factor into the decision. In 28 career appearances against the Indians, he’s 9-9 with a 3.87 ERA.

Bauer (0-0) will be making his first start of 2017. The former first-round pick of the Diamondbacks (third overall in 2011) finished last season with a 12-8 record and 4.26 ERA. He’s faced Arizona just once, picking up a no-decision while allowing two runs over eight innings on Aug. 13, 2014.

Follow @LukeLapinski