PHOENIX — Zack Greinke struck out a season-high 12 batters and came within one out of finishing a complete game in a Diamondbacks’ 5-1 victory Monday night which ended a three-game winning streak for the White Sox.
Greinke (6-2) gave up four hits, one a harmless homer to Leury Garcia, and improved to 5-0 in his last six starts.
Manager Torey Lovello got booed by the Chase Field crowd when he came out to get has ace after Jose Abreu doubled with two outs in the ninth. The crowd then cheered as Greinke walked off.
Daniel Descalso’s three-run homer in the fourth broke a scoreless tie and Paul Goldschmidt hit his 11th against Miguel Gonzalez (3-5), who lasted five innings. The D-backs have won six of seven while the Sox fell to 3-5 on their Western road trip.
Gonzalez was unhappy with himself for walking Chris Owings with two outs in the fourth before serving up the homer to Descalso.
“You see what happens when you walk guys,” Gonzalez said. “That wasn’t in a good situation to walk the guy. You have to keep grinding, keep making my pitches. Really two pitches were the ones that hurt me tonight.”
The Sox had scored 16 and eight runs in their previous two games against the Mariners, but Greinke proved to be a much tougher challenge than the pitchers they faced in Seattle.
“He keeps the ball down out of the zone a lot,” Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “It’s kind of enticing. He keeps the ball in the hitter’s area and it ends up falling out.”
Yolmer Sanchez saw his 12-game hitting streak come to an end against Greinke.
Follow me on Twitter @CST_soxvan.
Email: dvanschouwen@suntimes.com
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