During his amazing run of six consecutive scoreless starts that stretched 43 2/3 innings, Zack Greinke had talked about how the streak merely involved a few more good pitches than normal plus some luck. That luck ended in the third inning Sunday against the New York Mets, when a hit batter, a bloop single and an error led to the run that ended his scoreless streak at 45 2/3 innings, the fourth-longest of the expansion era behind Orel Hershiser in 1988 (59 innings), Don Drsydale in 1968 (58 innings) and Bob Gibson in 1968 (47 innings).
The inning began when Greinke hit Kirk Nieuwenhuis in the back with an 0-1 fastball, just the 11th leadoff hitter to reach base against Greinke during his streak. Kevin Plawecki then blooped a 1-1 fastball to center field with Niewhenhuis, who had stopped at second, advancing to third when Joc Pederson bobbled the ball. That brought up opposing starter Jacob deGrom, a decent hitting pitcher with a .195 average. The Dodgers played the middle infielders back in double-play depth but had the corner guys even with their bags.
After a foul ball, then a safety squeeze bunt that trickled foul, deGrom hit a slow chopper to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who threw home, but Nieuwenhuis slid in ahead of the tag. Greinke worked out of the inning but the streak was over and Mets fans gave him a nice ovation.
Greinke had flown back to Los Angeles from New York on Thursday for the birth of his son, missing his scheduled start on Friday. Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said before the game that Greinke had played catch but hadn't done his normal between-games throwing routine.
As Hershiser can attest, it takes skill, dominance and that extra bit of luck to have a streak like this. Late in the streak, Hershiser received the benefit of a controversial interference call that erased a run (Drysdale had a similar incident). Hershiser was also able to break Drysdale's record in his final start of the regular season when the game went extra innings, allowing him to pitch the 10th inning of the game and record his record-breaking 59th scoreless inning. Greinke didn't get that kind of break on Sunday.
