He’s about to become the first pitcher to win a World Series. Zack Greinke, a former Cy Young Award winner (2009 American League) and former teammate of Hyun-jin Ryu, is having a very difficult season.

The Kansas City Royals’ Zack Greinke started a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Kansas, on April 29.

Greinke threw 76 pitches over 4⅔ innings, allowing six hits, two walks, two strikeouts, and two runs. He was unable to prevent his team from losing 5-0. With the loss, he fell to 1-13 and lowered his season ERA from 5.34 to 5.28.

With the loss, Greinke is tied for second in the league in losses. Teammate Jordan Liles (3-15) holds the top spot. In terms of winning percentage, Greinke is dead last.

Greinke struggled in the first inning. He gave up a leadoff single to South Korean big leaguer Bae Ji-hwan. He was followed by back-to-back singles from Brian Hayes. With runners on first and second, he induced an infield grounder to Andrew McCutchen. He drew a walk. With runners at second and third, he got Joshua Palacios to ground out to first to narrowly avoid a run.

But in the top of the second, the lead was lost.

Endy Rodriguez singled, Zack Swinski walked, and Leover Peguero singled. The bases were loaded. Alfonso Rivas showed off his crisis management skills by getting another walk. They traded two outs and a run. He got Arica Williams to fly out to right field with two outs.

Greinke faced Bae again in the top of the third. She gave up a leadoff double to Bae. She gave up a two-run double to Hayes. With the bases loaded, Greinke struck out McCutchen, Palacios and Rodriguez in succession to minimize the damage.

Greinke got out of the fourth with a triple play. He got Williams and Bae to ground out to start the fifth. He retired the next eight batters in a row and appeared to have settled down.먹튀검증

But with the fifth inning looming, he was hit by a pitch to Hayes. With two on and one out, the Kansas City bench must have run out of patience because they pulled Greinke, who had only thrown 76 pitches. Down by two runs and with two outs in the fourth inning, it would have been unthinkable for the veteran Greinke to walk a runner. Reliever Tucker Davidson got McCutchen to ground out to end the inning.

Greinke made his debut with Kansas City in 2004. In 2009, he won the American League Cy Young Award in a Kansas City uniform. He went on to play for the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Houston Astros before returning home in 2022. This year, he accepted the worst stat line of his career, indicating that he is close to retirement.