Game Recap: Spruill Falls in Starting Debut

This was a tough way for Zeke Spruill (0-1) to make his starting pitching debut for the Arizona Diamondbacks (55-53). The 23-year old righty was asked to go out and match Yu Darvish (10-5) as the D-Backs made up the May 29th rainout against the Texas Rangers (60-49). Almost predictably, the Rangers defeated Arizona 7-1 behind Darvish’s seven inning gem in which the ace allowed five hits and struck out 14.

Zeke Spruill had a rough outing, surrendering 5 runs over 4 innings in a 7-1 loss to the Rangers. Image:: Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports

Spruill, who had pitched 4 1/3 innings allowing one earned run in four games before tonight, set the Rangers down in order in the first inning. In the second, A.J. Pierzynski hit a solo home run with out to give Texas a 1-0 lead. It was the first of three home runs surrendered by Spruill as Mitch Moreland and David Murphy added solo shots in the third and fourth inning, respectively. Leonys Martin‘s two-run double rounded out the scoring against Zeke. For the evening, he pitched four innings allowing five runs on seven hits. walking no one and striking out three. Pierzynski’s two-run single in the seventh off Tony Sipp rounded out the scoring.

The Snakes’ hitters did not do much against Darvish with only three singles through six innings. In their half of the seventh, the offense had its best chance to score with Eric Chavez on second and Martin Prado on first with one out. Jason Kubel flied out to center and Didi Gregorius popped out to short to quickly end the threat. Also of note in this game was the Major League debut of catcher Tuffy Gosewisch, who was called up from Reno to become the backup to Wil Nieves as Miguel Montero was put on the 15-day disabled list with a back issue. Gosewisch singled in three trips to the plate. Prado’s single in the ninth plated Cody Ross for the only D-Back run.

Arizona travels to Boston to face the Red Sox starting Friday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM EST, 4:05 PM MST with Randall Delgado scheduled to face Boston’s Jon Lester.

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