A look at the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day starting pitchers
Mar 30, 2017, 1:50 PM | Updated: 8:51 pm
Sunday afternoon at Chase Field, Zack Greinke will take the mound and officially open the 2017 season for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
For his — and the D-backs’ sake — let’s hope his second Opening Day start for the team goes better than his first.
Last year, the team’s high-priced acquisition struggled in his debut against the Colorado Rockies, allowing seven runs on nine hits and one walk in just four innings. The D-backs lost the game 10-5, and in some ways the ace’s outing set the tone for what would be an incredibly disappointing season.
That season, by the way, cost manager Chip Hale and GM Dave Stewart their jobs.
The good news is that’s all in the past now, and 2017 offers hope for brighter days. It all starts with Greinke, and with his Day 1 start in mind, below is a look at every Opening Day pitcher in D-backs history along with some interesting notes from the first game of the season.
Interesting Stuff
Greinke is one of nine different hurlers to take the mound on Opening Day for the Diamondbacks, and just the fourth to do so in consecutive seasons. The other five pitchers — Andy Benes, Javier Vazquez, Dan Haren, Miley, Josh Collmenter — never made a second Opening Day start for the Diamondbacks.
Of the nine different pitchers to take the mound in Game 1 for the D-backs, just two (Randy Johnson and Wade Miley) were left-handed.
Johnson’s six-straight Opening Day outings is the longest streak in franchise history.
None of Arizona’s last three Opening Day Starters (Greinke, Collmenter and Miley) made it past the fifth inning. Along those same lines, just seven times has the D-backs’ starter made it through seven innings.
Speaking of Johnson, his three Opening Day victories are the most in Diamondbacks history, with Kennedy’s two coming in second.
Including Greinke, five Arizona Opening Day starters had appeared in at least one All-Star Game prior to their Game 1 outing as a Diamondback.
