Once a trio with Ryu-Hyun-jin-Kershaw…Ohtani victim of oversized bombs → 8G streak, will this be the last year?
It’s been eight games without a win. His lackluster curveball has fallen prey to the league’s best hitters. At 40 years old, Zack Greinke (Kansas City Royals) is approaching retirement.
Greinke suffered his seventh loss of the season after giving up four runs on eight hits (two home runs) with one walk and four strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings in a start against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.토토사이트
With two outs in the first, Gronkie walked Mike Trout and hit Brandon Drury with a single to center to put runners on first and second. He then struck out Hunter Renfroe on a fielder’s choice to end the inning, and then retired the side in order in the second and third innings. Most notably, he retired American League home run leader Shohei Ohtani on a grounder to second base in the first and a swinging strikeout in the third, using a 70.8 mph (113 km/h) slower curveball at 2B-2S to induce a swing and a miss.
Greinke struck first in the fourth inning with a 1-0 lead. With two outs and runners in scoring position, he gave up an RBI single to Drury. Renfroe followed with a single up the middle to put runners on first and second, but he struck out Chad Wallach, got Michael Stefanik to fly out to right field, and walked Luis Lengifo to load the bases before Lengifo was hit by a pitch from Andrew Velasquez. End of inning.
[Photo] Zack Greinke ⓒGettyimages (All rights reserved)
Fifth inning, 2-1 lead. With three outs and the game-winning run at the plate, the nightmare began. A leadoff double by Taylor Ward put runners on second and third with nobody out, but Ohtani hit a devastating two-run shot. Thrown on a full count, the sixth pitch was a 69.7-mph (112-kilometer) slow curveball that sailed over the right-center field fence. Ohtani’s fastball hit 117.1 mph (188 km/h) and traveled 422 feet (129 meters). His timing on the curve was so precise that you could almost feel it was a home run the moment it hit.
Gronkiewicz gave up a solo home run to the next batter to showcase the raw power of the Angels’ vaunted “trautani. A 90.6-mph (145-kilometer) fastball to the left-center field seats became his 14th home run of the season. He then struck out Drury, got Renfroe to fly out to left and Wallach to fly out to first, but the three runs were already down. With his pitch count up to 89, Greinke was replaced by Carlos Hernandez in the sixth inning, trailing 2-4, and took the loss as the game ended in a 2-5 Kansas City loss.
[Photo] Zack Greinke ⓒGettyimages (All rights reserved)
Greinke re-signed with Kansas City for one year and up to $16 million last year after going 4-9 with a 3.68 ERA in 26 games (137 innings). But at age 40, Greinke hasn’t been a shadow of his former self. Through 15 games this season, he is 1-7 with a 4.81 goals-against average. His only quality start came on April 6 against the Toronto Blue Jays (six innings, one run) and he hasn’t won in eight games since May 9 against the Chicago White Sox. Against the Angels, he was dominant through the first three innings, but his slower pace in the fourth and fifth innings didn’t work and he suffered another loss.
Born in 1983, Greinke is a veteran of veterans, having made his big league debut with Kansas City in 2004 and bounced around to the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks and Houston Astros before returning to Kansas City for his 20th season. A six-time All-Star, two-time ERA champion, and one-time Cy Young Award winner, fans in Korea know him as the man who formed the starting trio with Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-jin Ryu during his time with the Dodgers. In the major leagues, he has a career record of 571 games, 3323⅔ innings, 224 wins, 148 losses, and a 3.46 ERA.