Fletch already mentioned it in the Starting Five this morning, but on Monday night in Kansas City Zack Greinke was once again absolutely dominant in going the distance and pitching a shutout against the White Sox. It was the type of pitching performance that you couldn't help but enjoy watching, even if you happened to be pulling for the other team, as it was an absolute clinic performed with a surgeon's precision.White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said afterward that it was the best performance he'd seen from a major league pitcher in a long time, and I have to agree. I've seen Greinke make three starts this season -- twice on television, and once in person -- and I'm yet to see him surrender a run. However, I did see him strike out 27 batters while only walking three. It's the type of dominance I haven't seen from a pitcher since Pedro Martinez's amazing run from 1999-2002.
Much like Greinke felt after Monday's game, last night was my favorite one to watch as well. Zack struck out 10 White Sox hitters without surrendering a walk, and only gave up six hits while throwing 104 pitches. Now those six hits he gave up are actually pretty misleading.
There was one solid double by Jayson Nix in the ninth inning, and a solid base hit by A.J. Pierzynski, but the other four hits were luck for the White Sox. Three of them could have been scored as errors seeing as how Mark Teahan let a line drive pop out of his glove, Alberto Callaspo got a glove on one of Scott Podsenik's hits, and Podsednik's double was only a double because Billy Butler tried to catch the ball with his hip.
Another single by Alexei Ramirez was nothing but Ramirez closing his eyes and praying on a wipeout slider low and away, as he reached as far as he could across the plate and hit it off the end of his bat, causing the ball to float just over Callaspo into centerfield.
Now considering that Greinke has only made six starts this season it's way too early to say he's matched Pedro's dominance during those five seasons in Boston, but he is pitching like Pedro did then. My favorite thing about the kid who once had to leave the sport because of depression and anxiety problems is his confidence.
He isn't scared of anybody when he's on that mound and has a baseball in his hand.
In the second inning Greinke started Jim Thome off with a fastball that Thome crushed to left center field for a fly out. Thome just missed a solo home run by maybe an eigth of an inch on his bat. So when Thome came up again later in the game, you'd expect Zack to start him off with a slider or maybe his change.
Nope. Greinke started the at-bat with another fastball in the same exact spot and blew it by him. Then later in the game Paul Konerko took a fastball and crushed it to the warning track in center. Konerko's next at-bat? Same pitch. Same result.
He won't give in to anybody at any time, and that's why he's having so much success right now.
By far my favorite at-bat of the game came in the third inning against Alexei Ramirez. Greinke started the at-bat off with a fastball under Ramirez's chin, something he's been prone to do this season and is quite Bob Gibson-esque. Ramirez lay on the ground afterwards thankful he was still alive.
So Grienke then threw three straight breaking balls for strikes, with Ramirez diving out of the way on each pitch. it was an absolute thing of beauty.
If the kid can maintain his current level of confidence in all of his pitches for the rest of the season, there's no limit to what he may be able to accomplish this year. He'll probably give up another run at some point as he's bound to hang a breaking pitch sooner or later -- though I haven't seen him do it yet -- but I wouldn't expect too many more after that one.
