After signing a massive 6-year/$206 million deal with the Diamondbacks before last season, Zack Greinke had a utterly disappointing year in Arizona. This season, however, things are much better. In fact, after 10 starts, Greinke appears to be back to his usual, dominant self:
2016 Stats (158.2 IP): 4.37 ERA, 4.12 FIP, 3.98 xFIP (2.2 fWAR)
2017 Stats (67.0 IP): 2.82 ERA, 3.18 FIP, 2.87 xFIP (1.7 fWAR)
And his latest start – last night against the Chicago White Sox – was arguably his best of the season. In it, he lasted 8.2 innings, allowed just one earned run, walked one batter, and struck out a season-high 12 White Sox for a game score of 85.
Check out the highlights here:
Zack Greinke was really fun to watch tonight. #OurSeason pic.twitter.com/yKCICDW21T
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) May 23, 2017
Crazy impressive stuff altogether, yes, but it was the last strikeout of the night (#12) that had me in stitches.
After sitting in the low 90s with his fastball all night, Greinke dropped this 65 MPH curve – effectively an eephus pitch – on Yolmer Sanchez making him look pretty hilariously foolish in the process.
65 mph?
Yeah, Zack got ya with the eephus! pic.twitter.com/A2VsP7eyeL
— MLB (@MLB) May 23, 2017
You can almost hear Sanchez say, “Oh brother.”
Anyway, I really hope Greinke continues pitching like he has, because when he’s on (and, oh baby, he’s on), he’s as good as anyone in baseball.