Zack Greinke’s Incredible Scoreless Streak Continues
When you think of the great Dodgers pitchers throughout history, you think of names such as Sandy Koufax, Dazzy Vance, Orel Hershiser, and Don Drysdale among others. If you look at some of the best pitchers of today, Dodgers’ star Clayton Kershaw is without a doubt one of the first names that comes to mind. He is coming off an MVP season and his 3rd Cy Young Award in 4 years. Last season, he had a commanding streak of 41 straight innings without allowing a run, but now that seems like an easy feat.
Kershaw’s teammate, Zack Greinke, recently extended his scoreless inning streak past Kershaw’s from last season to a staggering 43 and two thirds innings. If he is able to continue this streak, it looks like he could surpass Dodgers’ greats Orel Hershiser’s 59 straight and Don Drysdale’s 58 straight.
This feat certainly seems plausible as this incredible showing of pitching is not a fluke for Greinke. Not only has he not let up a run in 43 and two thirds innings, but his ERA for the entire season is a ridiculously low 1.30. Greinke has been stellar all season and has not posted an ERA north of 2.00 for any single month of the MLB season.
Zack Greinke’s scoreless streak is up to 40(!) innings. He is a good player. http://t.co/WbvNQXfGOM #LightsOut pic.twitter.com/oGiNLqydXe
— MLB (@MLB) July 19, 2015
Greinke has enjoyed a very successful career thus far, having won a Cy Young award in 2009 as well as being selected to three All-Star games including this season’s festivities. However, while Greinke has enjoyed much success, he also almost fell out of the league back in 2005 as he battled bouts of depression and anxiety, which forced him to miss most of the 2006 season.
Greinke’s feat of almost 44 innings scoreless is incredible in itself, but it becomes even more impressive when you look at the teams that he faced in the span. During the scoreless streak, Greinke has faced impressive clubs such as the Cubs, Mets, and Nationals. Even more impressive, has been Greinke’s ability to stay in the game for a solid amount of innings, taking pressure off the Dodgers’ bullpen. During the streak, Greinke is averaging over 7 innings of work in each start and has averaged just over 102 pitches per game as well.
Perhaps the most impressive part of this scoreless streak, besides of course the streak itself, has been Greinke’s ability to limit the amount of walks he concedes on the mound. Through the 6 starts that encompass the streak, Greinke has only walked a total of 4 batters, while striking out an incredible 42.
The Dodgers will surely be looking to ride Greinke’s streak as long as they possibly can, with Greinke projected to start in the upcoming series against the New York Mets and the Oakland Athletics. If Greinke is able to keep that streak going through his next two starts, he will surely be on the brink of passing the greats.
With this streak and his incredible pitching thus far this season, be sure for Greinke to be in the running for yet another Cy Young Award, and who knows, maybe even an MVP if he keeps this level of play up. Recent history has shown us that in this era of the pitcher, the MVP award can most certainly be won by a pitcher, as seen by teammate, Kershaw, as well as the Tigers’ own Justin Verlander in 2011.
