Zack Greinke got his first big league win in a long time last night against the Blue Jays, and looked damn good (for the second straight game) doing it.
This is Greinke's second outing of the year, both of which have been great starts. His first outing was against the Red Sox in the third game of this season. He went up against Dice-K, so most of the attention wasn't on Zack that day, but he forced himself into the spotlight as well - going pitch for pitch with the Red Sox import. That day, Greinke showed tremendous stuff, going seven innings while ringing up seven strike outs and allowing only one earned run. Pretty good numbers against one of the best lineups in baseball.
After his first start for the Royals since 2005, the media sat up and took notice of Greinke. Of course, the local media was already paying attention, but now the national media was buzzing as well. Everyone already knew about Greinke and his amazing potential, but most were sitting back and waiting to see if he'd worked things out as far as his bouts with depression. It appears he has.
Greinke followed up the Red Sox game with a start on the road in Toronto last night - registering a win and looking every bit as good as he did against Boston. He struck out Frank Thomas not once, but twice - and had Big Hurt frustrated and grumbling to himself (and at the umpire). In his second start, Greinke went six innings and struck out five. Through two starts (and 13 innings) he has allowed 14 hits, two earned runs, one walk and has struck out 13.
I love Greinke and have been following him since we drafted him. I was at his first major league game (which he won) and have had high hopes that he'll become our next ace. You can imagine my disappointment when I heard he left spring training last year.....however, I stuck with Zack, hoping that he'd get his problems worked out and at some point come back to pitching. I had no idea what to expect from him as a pitcher when he returned, but this spring, he was dominant. Batters were buzzing, saying he had the best stuff out of all the pitchers in camp down in Arizona. They may have been right, and it looks to have carried over to the regular season.
The one thing I've noticed more than anything this year with Zack (even more than his pitching) has been his demeanor on the field and in the dugout. It seems to me that he's beaten his depression. He looks happy out there, and looks like he's one of the guys....like he fits in. On the mound, he seems to be enjoying himself - he even seems a bit cocky out there, which is exactly the attitude an ace needs to go out there and make hitters like Frank Thomas and David Ortiz look bad.
I remember the excitement around Greinke on his rise through the minors and during his first big league season....and I think that pitcher has finally returned. I, along with many other fans, cannot wait to see where Greinke goes from here. The sky is the limit.
2 comments:
I don't know if I've ever been excited about a Royals pitcher's start than Zack's last outing and Meche's Opening Day start. We still don't have a complete staff, but we do have a couple of flashes of brilliance that should be fun to watch every fifth day.
Greinke is an ace in the making. Hopefully he can keep this up. I think he's a more competitive pitcher now. I read a quote on him a few weeks ago and it said how over the offseason he looked at Roger Clemens pitch on video and he noticed that his stuff wasn't what made him so great(I love Greinke's quotes, he had the guts to say his stuff wasn't that great!) it was his competitive fire. Maybe Greinke is learning that Clemens competitive fire. If so, these last couple starts could be a sign of things to come.
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