Zack Greinke helps D-Backs to sweep – and enters the Cy Young Award conversation.
D-Backs ace wraps up Dodgers sweep
The postseason award conversation surrounding the Diamondbacks has centered on one topic: Is this the year Paul Goldschmidt finally wins the National League’s Most Valuable Player award?
But after Arizona’s 8-1 victory over the Dodgers on Thursday – completing the first sweep of Los Angeles all season and extending the Diamondbacks’ winning streak to a season-high-tying seven games – perhaps a second dialogue needs to be started:
Is Zack Greinke on the short list of Cy Young candidates?
Greinke pitched six innings of onerun ball to win his 16th game of the season, which made him, for the moment, the winningest pitcher in the major leagues. (Milwaukee’s Zach Davies, with 15 wins, was scheduled to pitch later Thursday.)
Cy Young voters don’t value wins the way they once did, but heading into Thursday's game, Greinke also was tied for third in the NL in strikeouts, fourth in WHIP, fifth in ERA and fourth in bases on balls per nine innings.
“He’s carried us all year long,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “To me, a Cy Young is somebody that is dependable, is durable, and Zack has been there every fifth day for us and gone out and executed as good as you possibly could have hoped. I think he deserves some strong consideration – very, very strong consideration.”
Greinke, who’s 16-6 with a 3.08 ERA, admitted he has thought about the Cy Young, but he believes Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw (15-2, 2.04) and Washington’s Max Scherzer (13-5, 2.21) are the leading contenders.
“They’ve been the best,” he said, adding that if he were going to win the award, he would have won it in 2015 when he 19-3 with a 1.66 ERA only to finish second to the Cubs’ Jake Arrieta.
Greinke already has three more wins than he did last season, in part because he’s been healthy – he missed nearly seven weeks last season with an oblique injury – and also because he’s pitched well at Chase Field. Last season, he was 5-5 with a 4.81 ERA at home. This season: 13-1 with a 2.31 ERA.
Asked about the difference, Greinke said, “I don’t know,” before adding, “I said this a million times last year. I thought I pitched well the first half (of the season) and at the end of the year pitched pretty bad.”
Greinke wasn’t at his best Thursday – he gave up some hard-hit balls and threw four wild pitches – but he didn’t need to be. The Diamondbacks hammered a Dodgers starter for the third straight game, collecting eight hits and seven earned runs off Kenta Maeda in just three innings. Chris Iannetta and A.J. Pollock had two-run homers, leadoff hitter Gregor Blanco had three hits and Paul Goldschmidt went 2 for 4 with two RBIs, giving him 107 on the season.
That allowed Greinke to cruise through six innings before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the sixth. Greinke was at 99 pitches and Lovullo thought that was enough, given Greinke had thrown 111 pitches in his previous start against San Francisco.
“At 8-1, I felt like he had done his job,” Lovullo said.
“I just thought the combination of two games and around 200 pitches was comfortable for me.”
Right fielder J.D. Martinez, who faced Greinke 17 times before becoming his teammate this season, said Greinke’s success is due to his intelligence – Lovullo has marveled at the amount of information Greinke can process – and his unwillingness to let any hitter dictate an atbat.
“He’s just very smart,” Martinez said. “And he’s stubborn. He’s not going to give in to you. If you think he’s just going to lay it in there good luck. He never wants to give in to anybody. He’ll just sit there and paint on you. If you chase, great. If you don’t, that’s fine.
“He knows what you can and can not hit and he’s going to make you hit what you are uncomfortable hitting. That’s not unusual but the difference is he executes it.”
D-Backs raise funds for Texas
The Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation will donate $372,923 to benefit various relief efforts for the damage throughout the state of Texas created by Hurricane Harvey. The funds were raised via the 50/50 Raffle, supported by Western Refining, with $186,462 coming from half of the total jackpot and the Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation matching that total.