Zack Greinke has made 197 career regular season starts. He's made exactly 200 big league starts if you include the playoffs (and why wouldn't you?). We can now officially say that Friday night is just the second time in Greinke's career that he's made a major league start and failed to record a single strikeout.
Cardinals vs. Brewers: Zack Greinke Yanked As Deficit Worsens
Not one. This from a guy who struck out 10.5 batters per nine innings during the year.
Why am I bringing this up now? Because Greinke was pulled in the bottom of the sixth, setting his numbers in stone. And he was pulled because he allowed the score to get worse.
It wasn't all Greinke's fault. With two outs and nobody on, Rafael Furcal drilled a double. The next batter was Jon Jay, and Jay hit a routine grounder to short. But Yuniesky Betancourt fumbled said routine grounder, and Jay reached safely.
That brought Albert Pujols to the plate, and Albert Pujols didn't miss a 1-2 curveball. He yanked it into left field for a run-scoring single, extending the Cardinals' lead to 5-1 and bringing Ron Roenicke out of the dugout. Roenicke pulled Greinke and called on Chris Narveson, and Narveson picked up the last out.
Greinke’s numbers? 89 pitches - 55 strikes - with two walks and zero strikeouts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there were also seven hits and five runs. Poor defense did Greinke no favors, but let’s not pretend that defense was the difference between Greinke having a good game and Greinke having a bad game. This was a pretty bad game.
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