Arizona Diamondbacks president Hall on Zack Godley: ‘This guy is a bulldog’

Zack Godley’s debut Thursday night at Chase Field was divine.

Having just received the call up from Double-A Mobile, the 25-year-old limited the Milwaukee Brewers to four hits and zero runs while striking out seven in six innings in an 8-3 D-backs win.

Godley’s performance was so good, in fact, he became the first pitcher since 1900 to throw at least six scoreless innings with no walks and seven or more strikeouts in his big league debut.

“The kid, he is something,” D-backs president Derrick Hall told Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Friday morning. “I mean, he was cool as a cucumber and didn’t seem affected at all, and you could see that in his performance.”

Hall said he had not seen much of Godley of late, but knew that the team’s scouts were high on him. Acquired in last winter’s trade that sent Miguel Montero to the Chicago Cubs, he had started 15 games in the minor leagues this season between High-A Visalia and Mobile, allowing 35 runs — 27 earned — in 89.1 innings. But no matter what kind of high hopes the organization may have for him, Thursday’s outing was something special.

“We had heard this guy is a bulldog and just a fierce competitor, but you could see it,” Hall said.

His excellent debut notwithstanding, the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Godley figures to get at least a couple more starts in place of an injured Chase Anderson. The Diamondbacks, who are 44-50 and had been scuffling over the last couple of weeks, won’t be upset if he turns in more efforts like his first.

“For that kid to have pitched as he did, six scoreless and striking out seven — and again, just looked absolutely fearless — it’s just what we needed,” Hall said. “We were playing the worst that we’re going to play all season, and we needed to snap out of it. Things are obviously getting better and will get better.

“But it never feels good when you’re going through that, when you’ve lost eight out of nine. And for that kid to take the ball and keep the ball down and watch it dart and move and sink, that was special.”