Masterful Greinke recaptures ace form

HOUSTON — This is the ace Arizona paid $200 million over six years for this past offseason.

Zack Greinke has been plenty solid of late, but he truly harnessed his Cy Young form in the D-backs’ 3-0 win over the Astros on Thursday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.

And the checklist from his outing is impressive:

1) A season-high 11 strikeouts? Done.

2) Seven innings of shutout ball? That was better than counterpart Dallas Keuchel.

3) Greinke’s fourth straight win? It was one the D-backs desperately needed.

4) No walks or home runs allowed? He accomplished that for the first time in 2016.

“We’ve been playing really well in the games I’ve pitched,” Greinke said. “This was actually probably the least amount of runs we’ve scored in my games. I feel confident in what we got going right now.”

Greinke left no doubt to being a bona fide ace on Thursday afternoon, as he mixed pitches with precision and bested last year’s American League Cy Young Award winner to salvage one game for Arizona in this four-game home-and-home set.

“He was just masterful out there,” manager Chip Hale …

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