Zack Greinke is Michael Myers following you when you’re by yourself in the woods around 3 AM and the moon is covered by rain clouds scary good. You know what else is scary besides how good he’s been this year? He’s just 25-years old and coming into his prime. We could be looking at a Cy Young winner for the next decade.
Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, though. After all, he could have another mental breakdown that forced him to leave the game for nearly a year a few years back. Greinke suffered from depression and social anxiety disorder that made being around other people torturous, not to mention pitching in front of 30,000 people probably feel like hell. After getting therapy and taking medicine, Greinke made his return. In his first two years back he was pretty solid with a 3.85 ERA through 2008, including a career best 13 wins last year. He wasn’t electric, but he was starting to look more and more like the 6th overall pick the Royals selected back in 2002. Even so, not many people would have expected him to turn into this after all he went through. Yogi Berra said, “baseball is 90% mental and the other half is physical.” Greinke struggled at one of the biggest aspects of the game. In fact, many people didn’t think he’d ever recover.
Well, he proved those critics wrong and has come full circle in becoming a poster child for others who suffer from the same diseases he once had. Through 75 innings this season, Greinke has a 0.84 ERA, an ERA that can only be matched on video games when you’re on the Rookie level. That ERA is terrible compared to what it was before tonight’s outing against the Tigers–I hope you are catching my sarcasm because I’m laying it on there pretty thick. It must be tough on a guy mentally to throw a complete game, walk nobody, give up only one run, and have your ERA get worse than it was coming into the game. Before tonight’s win, Greinke sported a 0.82 ERA that ballooned to 0.84 after allowing a run on a broken bat single in the first inning.
A broken bat RBI-single. So even when allowing a run in a game, Greinke still gets to walk off the field knowing he shattered a bat, which might be a top five feeling for a pitcher besides throwing a perfect game, no-no, complete game, or striking a guy out in a big spot.
Greinke’s so good that Jim Leyland may have thrown in the towel in the 7th inning tonight when he brought in statistically, two of our worst relievers, Nate Robertson and Brandon Lyon. We were down just 3-1.
In two starts this year against the Tigers, Greinke has allowed just that one earned run in 18 innings (two complete games). He also has walked just one and while striking out 18. That’s good for a 18:1 K:BB ratio and a 0.50 ERA. I think somewhere Joe Posnanski just creamed in his pants.
Do I think he’ll be able to keep up an under one ERA for an entire season? Absolutely not, but his numbers right now make a sane man’s eyes permanently goggle. This may very well get me shot in seven different counties back in Michigan, and I hate to admit it, but Greinke’s fun to watch.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
