Greinke’s artistic flair makes for fun days
Eight scoreless innings in 1-0 win on Saturday stopped 6-game slide
SEATTLE — Starts and time seem finite for Zack Greinke, a man who has defied age and mastered manipulation of a baseball. He is 37 years old and in the final season of his contract. He struck out the 2,700th batter of his heralded career Saturday but insists milestones mean nothing to him.
Greinke’s longevity in the game does not depend on numbers or leaderboard positions. His emphasis is retiring hitters and having fun. Last season was the “least fun” of Greinke’s career. He could not bring his two young sons to the ballpark. His routine got interrupted by MLB’s sometimes invasive health and safety protocols. For a player who appeared to cherish the simpler aspects of this sport, the year seemed grating.
Ten months later, Greinke must still wear a mask and take COVID-19 tests. Some of the protocols have become a disturbing new normal. Players are more accustomed to them and can adapt. No pitcher in the sport knows adaptation better than Greinke. He no longer relies on triple-digit heat to tie up hitters. Greinke is now an artist, making the baseball do his will with almost perfect mechanics and an unpredictable arsenal.
“I wish we had a better view instead of all the way out in the bullpen,” Astros closer Ryan Pressly said. “It’s fun to watch, fun how he manipulates pitches and moves them in and out. It’s like an artist when he’s out there pitching. He just paints the corners and keeps doing it over and over and over again. It’s fun to watch him.”
Greinke seems to appreciate the magical moments he creates. Time and age catch up to everyone, even the Astros’ enigmatic righthander who cherishes the gems whenever they arrive.
“Sometimes you pitch and you think it’s really hard, and then today it was fun,” Greinke said Saturday night after throwing eight scoreless innings in a 1-0 Astros win over the Seattle Mariners. “Things were happening how I wanted it to happen.
“When it’s happened to me the last couple times, I never know if that’s going to be the last time that ever happens. It’s a nice feeling when you have a good game.”
Greinke is carrying the Astros’ starting rotation and, by extension, the entire team. Manager Dusty Baker shuddered to think where the Astros would be without him. On a team needing direction while missing four regulars due to health and safety protocols, Greinke stepped up without even saying a word. He stopped a six-game losing streak and continued an awesome start to his season. He has a 1.08 WHIP and 2.81 ERA after four starts. He has the club’s only three quality starts — none better than Saturday’s.
Greinke tossed eight excellent innings against the Mariners. It did not matter that he operated with a minuscule margin for error. The Astros’ lineup, littered with fill-ins and still frustrating with runners in scoring position, produced one run. Greinke made it seem like so many more. The Mariners had no prayer of pouncing on him.
Greinke threw 91 pitches and probably could have gone 20 more. Baker deliberated whether to send him back out for the ninth inning. Greinke had not thrown a complete game since April 19, 2017. His last shutout was June 7, 2016.
Baker opted for Pressly instead. Greinke “did not fight it at all,” according to Baker. The decision seemed sound. The top three hitters in Seattle’s order were due up for a fourth look at Greinke. Pressly threw just three pitches Friday.
“We have a really good guy down there,” Greinke said. “It’d be different if Pressly was hurt and we’re looking for a closer situation. But when you have someone as good as him, I have more confidence in him getting the guys out than I do in myself, especially that late in the game.”
After allowing 10 hits and six earned runs to a dreadful Detroit Tigers team earlier in the week, Greinke grew disgusted with his slider. He vowed to never throw it again — and actualized the promise Saturday. None of his 91 pitches registered as sliders, according to Statcast. He mixed in 17 sinkers to vary his arsenal instead.
“We were going to throw some sliders, but the other stuff was working really good, so we never kind of felt like we had to,” Greinke said. “That wasn’t really the plan to do no sliders. The game was working good, so it would have been weird throwing one in like the sixth or seventh inning all of a sudden, because it had been so long in the game without doing it.”
Greinke finished five of his eight innings on 10 pitches or fewer. Changeups and four-seam fastballs got him through the order once.
During the second and third trips against it, Greinke incorporated his slow curveball for both called strikes and putaway pitches. All six of his strikeouts ended on either a curveball or changeup.
“It’s fun to watch him. The way he can manipulate the zone, keep guys off balance. He’s fun to watch. He’s just like a mechanic up there, working the zone,” said Taylor Jones, the rookie who drove in Houston’s only run. “I love watching him pitch. His demeanor and way he goes about his business is fun as well. It was fun to watch.”
Greinke’s only stress lasted mere minutes. Consecutive singles to Jose Marmolejos and Evan White started the fifth. Marmolejos was the only Mariner to touch second base all night. Getting to third proved far more difficult. He broke between the bases when J.P. Crawford crushed a line drive toward Greinke.
Greinke is a six-time Gold Glover renowned for his defensive prowess perhaps as much as his pitching. This missile seemed to stun him. Crawford hit it 103.6 mph off his bat. Greinke stuck his glove up out of sheer selfprotection. The baseball flew inside but bounced out. Greinke gathered the ball and darted his head, initially toward first base, then second and finally third.
“It’s a million things going through your mind in a short amount of time,” Greinke said.
“I was trying to figure out where to throw it to get the double play, then all the runners were going back to the bag. I was like, ‘Dang, they tagged up.’ Then I realized I dropped the ball. I was trying to figure out what to do since I dropped the ball. A lot of things went through my mind. I was going to go to second, but then I saw I could still get him at third.”’
Greinke lobbed the ball to Abraham Toro at third base, forcing Marmolejos out. Toro threw to Correa, who stretched and secured the relay moments ahead of Evan White’s slide into second. Correa raced off the bag and pumped his fist toward the third-base dugout. Greinke walked there, too. Cameras captured him exhaling a sigh of relief before a wide smile spread across his face.
“All pitches were working today, and that’s fun when that’s happening,” Greinke said. “It doesn’t happen very often.”