Beating leads Greinke to lose faith in slider
HOUSTON — Monday offered finality for Astros pitcher Zack Greinke. He is done with his slider, a problematic pitch since 2020 that he’s tired of trying to tinker.
“I don’t want to ever throw it again after today. It was bad. Their team is not a good slider hitting team,” Greinke said after the Tigers shelled him for six earned runs in 4⅔ innings in a 6-2 loss.
Greinke threw nine sliders against a free-swinging Detroit lineup. The Tigers entered Monday with a 47.7 percent swing rate and, according to Fangraphs, chased pitches outside the strike zone 32.4 percent of the time. They swung five times at Greinke’s nine sliders. Not one elicited a whiff.
Greinke entered spring training set on solving his slider woes. Four seasons ago, in an All-star season where he finished fourth in National League Cy Young voting, it was one of his most successful pitches. Greinke threw it 710 times in 2017 — comprising 22.5 percent of his pitch selection. Opponents swung and missed against it 44.4 percent of the time.
Greinke’s thrown it less frequently in each season since. He possesses four other pitches and can mix them masterfully, somewhat masking the slider’s ineffectiveness. Greinke often throws the slider primarily against righthanded hitters. Through three starts this season, righties have an .857 OPS against him.
To start this season, Greinke throwing the slider slower. It averaged 81.5 mph in his first three starts. He threw it at least 83.4 mph in each of the past four seasons. Greinke said he had no command of the pitch in spring training, but the movement was what he desired.
“If I can control it, it’d be great,” Greinke said in spring. “But I threw way too many nowhere close to where I wanted to throw them. It’s not a good pitch if I can’t command it.”
Greinke threw two terrific games to start the season against better competition — scattering two earned runs in 13 innings against the A’s and Angels, respectively. He acknowledged a “bad thought process” entering Monday’s start. Analytics suggested the Tigers were a chasehappy lineup. Greinke presumed he could induce wild swings with his expert mix of pitches. He could not, and now one pitch may disappear as a result.
“I threw (the slider) where I wanted sometimes and they hit it good, still,” Greinke said. “It’s been a bigunegative
to the season spring training and season. I had one good game with it against Oakland. It’s just been bad. Focus on the other pitches, the pitches that I throw good, from here on out.”