Kansas City pitcher Zack Greinke reached rarified air Sunday at Kauffman Stadium.
With one out in the top of the third inning, Greinke threw his 50,000th career pitch. It was a 90-mph fastball to Cleveland left fielder Steven Kwan, who swung and flied out to Kyle Isbel in center field.
Greinke and Justin Verlander are the only active players who have reached the 50,000-career pitch mark. Greinke, however, didn’t know MLB kept track of such stats.
“It was pretty neat,” Greinke said following the Royals’ 5-1 win in the series finale. “I haven’t paid attention to any of those. It sounds like a high number. The 500 starts was more interesting to me, but it was pretty cool.”
Greinke threw five scoreless innings, giving up three hits, one walk and five strikeouts — four coming on his curveball.
“Honestly, some games it’s been really good and some games it hasn’t been as good,” Greinke said. “I don’t really know why too much sometimes. But today was one of the games it worked really good. Just about every time I threw it, had a good result.
“I think it had something to do with throwing a lot of harder pitches. That made the curve be more of a surprise. That might have helped it out some, throwing strikes with the fastball… If you throw strikes with the curve sometimes it makes them have to swing at it, where if you just throw balls, they can wait back a little bit better on it.”
Since returning from the injured list Greinke (3-5) has won three of his last four starts.
“Zack set the tone for us,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “I thought his stuff was very sharp, putting everything where he wanted to. The curveball was keeping them off balance. But locating with the fastball. He set the tone and got a little something going early, and the guys just kept putting on the pressure.”
Isbel, who had two hits and an RBI, also made a spectacular diving catch in right-center field in the eighth inning. He said watching Greinke pitch is special.
“It’s an art,” Isbel said. “Every time I get to play center field behind him it’s super fun. He picks apart lineups better than a lot of pitchers and playing behind him is a blast. He’s always on the mound ready to pitch and attack and as a defender you’re always ready to go.”
The win also was a welcome sight for Royals fans. They hadn’t seen their hometown team win a series at home in nearly three months.
“It was a good game all the way around,” Greinke said. “And that was good after yesterday’s game. It was a fun game.”
