Zack Greinke is not perfect anymore, but he is still undefeated and still one of the best stories in baseball. Although Greinke’s scoreless streak to begin the season stopped at 24 innings, he pitched brilliantly in guiding the Kansas City Royals to a 6-1 victory against the Detroit Tigers at Kauffman Stadium.
Greinke was dominant in pitching a three-hitter for his second consecutive complete game. He used a 97-mile-per-hour fastball, a vicious slider and a curveball that almost bounced to collect some of his 10 strikeouts. Although Greinke (4-0) was nicked for a run, it was unearned, so he maintained his 0.00 earned run average.
Three years ago, Greinke was bored with baseball and left the Royals for several weeks. He was found to have depression and social anxiety disorder, and he returned to the major leagues full time in 2007. Now the calm, confident Greinke barely makes mistakes and is one of the most intimidating pitchers in the major leagues. Greinke has four of Kansas City’s nine wins.
Greinke’s streak ended mostly because of a plodding player’s baserunning. Catcher Gerald Laird tried to tag up and go from second to third on a liner to center field in the fifth. Coco Crisp fired the ball to shortstop Mike Aviles, but Aviles’s throw hit Laird’s foot and caromed toward left field. Greinke, who was backing up the play, retrieved the ball, but his throw home was too late to get Laird.
After the Tigers ended Greinke’s streak, the fans gave him a standing ovation. But Greinke did not respond. He quickly returned to the mound and threw his next pitch. Greinke retired the next 13 Tigers to finish the game in style.
Greinke ended 2008 with 14 scoreless innings, so he had a combined season streak of 38 consecutive scoreless innings. The Tigers scored off Greinke, but he simply started a new streak with four more shutout innings.
source: http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/
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