MLB Game Preview - San Francisco at Arizona

Sun Apr 2, 2017 4:10 PM EDT

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Diamondbacks would like to get off to a good start for one of the few times this decade, especially with new manager Torey Lovullo in charge.

The San Francisco Giants are hoping to avoid the sort of disastrous finish that hurt them last year.

The National League West foes will open a four-game series in Chase Field on Sunday, when aces Madison Bumgarner and Zack Greinke are scheduled to start. As in every season in the last half-dozen, San Francisco's Bumgarner will enter on the short list of NL Cy Young Award candidates. He has finished fourth, sixth and fourth while winning 51 games over the last three seasons.

Like his team, Greinke is looking to bounce back from a subpar 2016. He won 13 games but had a 4.37 ERA after signing a seven-year, $206.6 million free agent deal the previous winter. He also missed eight weeks with a strained oblique muscle, part of the reason Arizona finished with a major league-high 5.08 ERA last year.

"I still have really high hopes for our team," Greinke said this spring. "I thought we were going to be really good going into last year. We pretty much have the same team or a very similar team. I think we should be good. I'm shocked we didn't do better last year."

The Diamondbacks' first two weeks include seven games against the Giants, four versus the Los Angeles Dodgers and three against defending American League champion Cleveland. Lovullo, hired away from Boston by new general manager Mike Hazen, said he expects about 75 friends and family for Opening Day.

"I've been saying since Day 1 that we have to be a smart, tough baseball team that is going to earn everything on a daily basis," Lovullo said.

Bumgarner is 6-2 with a 2.80 ERA in 15 appearances and 14 starts at Chase Field. This is the fourth time in six years that the teams have opened the season in Arizona. Bumgarner is making his fourth consecutive Opening Day start, going 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in his previous three.

The Giants were done in by a bullpen that had a major league-high 32 failed save conversions last year, but they addressed that by signing free agent Mark Melcanon.

"When you have your set closer, it's a little easier to build down a little bit," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said in the spring.

The Diamondbacks have not started particularly well this decade, even when they won the NL West in 2011. That team opened 15-22 before a team meeting on a West Coast trip sparked a turnaround and a 94-win season in Kirk Gibson's first full year.

They lost seven of their first eight and were 5-18 in 2014 when left fielder Mark Trumbo suffered a foot injury in Wrigley Field that sidelined him for several months. That team was within 10 games of .500 only twice thereafter. It finished 64-98.

Arizona opened 10-14 in 2015 and never broke .500 over the final five months while finishing 79-83. It started 3-7 and 13-18 last year, before the pitching issues became acute.

"Everybody feels the importance of it," Lovullo said of a quick getaway.

"The bottom line is, if you are expecting to compete and go out and have meaningful games played in August and September, you have to have some sort of good start. I don't want to look too far ahead of things. I want us to go out on April 2 and compete and see where that leads us."

The Giants were 13-6 against Arizona last season, winning nine of 10 games played in the desert.